#if we had something going before i fell off the wagon come talk to me ! if you wanna keep it going or start somethin new

[rosemariiaa]

~The Weight of Want~

pairing: Paige x Azzi

a/n: just a short drabble ,had to get back on my pazzi wagon, so i wanted to break hearts a little today sorry! more fluff coming soon (i promise?) happy reading lovelies 💌

themes: angst,manipulation,pining

Enjoy!!!

Azzi stood by the window, arms wrapped around herself, staring out into the night. She could hear Paige in the other room—laughing at something on her phone, completely carefree, while Azzi’s heart felt like it was shattering into a million pieces. It always ended like this. Paige got what she wanted, and Azzi was left feeling empty, like her emotions didn’t matter.

But Azzi couldn’t let go. Not when Paige had that way of making her feel like she was the only person in the world, even if it was just for a few fleeting moments. It was those moments that Azzi lived for, even though deep down, she knew Paige didn’t feel the same way. Paige was casual. Paige didn’t want more. And that truth crushed her, night after night.

Azzi’s hand tightened into a fist. She could feel the lump forming in her throat, the words she’d been too scared to say so many times before rising up again, desperate to be heard. She hated herself for still being here, for still hoping that maybe Paige would change. Maybe tonight would be different.

“Azzi,” Paige called from the other room, her voice light, casual, like this was all so easy for her. Like Azzi wasn’t drowning in feelings she couldn’t escape. “Come here, I wanna show you something.”

Azzi closed her eyes, trying to steady her breath, but the anger—the hurt—it was bubbling over. She couldn’t just let this slide. Not again. She walked slowly into the living room, her steps heavy, like they were carrying the weight of every night she’d spent being played like this.

When Paige looked up, smiling, Azzi couldn’t take it anymore.

“Is this fun for you?” Azzi’s voice came out sharper than she intended, and Paige’s smile faltered, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

“Is it fun?” Azzi’s voice broke, but she pushed forward, her emotions finally spilling over. “Is it fun for you to see me hurt?”

Paige stared at her for a second, caught off guard, but then she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Azzi, c’mon, don’t start this. You’re overreacting.”

“No, I’m not. I—” Azzi’s breath hitched, tears welling up in her eyes. “I keep waiting for you to care. For you to want this to be something real. But every time I think maybe you do, you remind me that I’m just—just someone to you.”

“You’re not just someone, Azzi,” Paige said softly, stepping closer. “You know I care about you. I’ve told you that.”

“Then why do I feel like this? Why do I feel like I’m the only one hurting?” Azzi’s voice was shaking now, her emotions raw and exposed. “I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep pretending like this doesn’t destroy me.”

Paige was quiet for a moment, her gaze softening as she reached out to touch Azzi’s arm. “You’re overthinking this again. We’re good, Azzi. Don’t ruin it.”

But it didn’t feel good. It felt like a cycle Azzi couldn’t break, no matter how much she tried. Paige would always say just enough to keep her here, just enough to make her stay. And every time, Azzi fell for it. Every time, she convinced herself that maybe Paige meant it this time, that maybe things would change.

Azzi’s tears finally spilled over, her voice barely a whisper. “I love you, Paige. I love you, and you don’t even care.” Paige’s eyes flickered, her jaw tightening for a moment before she shook her head. “Azzi, we agreed—”

“No, you agreed,” Azzi snapped, stepping back, her hands trembling. “I went along with it because I thought maybe it would be enough. But it’s not. I’m not enough for you, am I?”

Paige’s expression hardened, her walls going up, and Azzi knew she’d lost. Again. “I never asked for anything more than this. You knew what this was.”

The words cut deeper than Azzi thought they would. She stared at Paige, waiting for her to take them back, to say something—anything—that would make this hurt less. But Paige just stood there, detached, like none of this was real for her.

“I hate that I let you do this to me,” Azzi whispered, her voice cracking. “But I can’t leave, can I? Because you’ll just say what you always do, and I’ll stay. And you’ll win.”

Paige’s hand reached out again, brushing the tear off Azzi’s cheek, and her voice dropped to that familiar, soothing tone. “You don’t have to leave. We’re good together, Azzi. You know we are.”

Azzi closed her eyes, feeling the familiar warmth of Paige’s touch, the same touch that always made her weak, made her forget everything she’d been hurting over. She hated it. She hated herself for giving in, for falling for Paige’s words every single time.

But she stayed. Just like she always did.

And Paige knew she would.

————-

well that was fucked..

tags: @thaatdigitaldiary @patscorner @ashortyluvsports @ohbueckers @mrsarnold @sierrale8ne

[sorialice]

Onceler x Reader Fluff

Neutral Pronouns!!

for @arson-n-barf (for some reason your name won’t come up when i try to tag you 😿)

It finally happened. Your boyfriend, the Onceler, had gotten to the lowest point in his business. His machines had cut down the last truffula tree. His family, seeing how this would bring his business to an end, up and left the second they noticed. It had been about a month since it happened, and Onceler was hidden away in his little factory home, wallowing in his misery as he finally realized what he’d done to the truffula forest. You’d tried to contact him a few times now, but each time you’d open the door a wooden mallet would quickly shoo you away. This time, you wouldn’t accept that. You knew you needed to talk to him, and he needed to talk to you.

Taking a walk from the Onceler’s wagon to his little house was always a bit depressing. What used to be lush landscape full of pink, orange, and yellow shades, was now a desolate wasteland of stumps and smog. It was a long trip by foot, but you didn’t have the resources to get there any faster at the moment. Approaching his home, you knew better than to knock on the door this time. A faint light was shining through a boarded up window, the only light you’d seen in what felt like hours.

That must be where he is…

“Onceler?”

No response. You didn’t expect it to be so easy, but you weren’t going to give up.

“Onceler. I’m not leaving until you let me talk to you! Please just say something. Anything at all?”

“Go away. I don’t know who you are and I don’t care.”

That’s harsh! How does he not know? Can he not recognize my voice?

It then occurred to you that with all the smog you had to breathe in on the way, your voice had become a bit raspier and lower. Not to a disturbing point, but apparently just enough to mask your identity. Just then, peering up at the window, you noticed a small bucket up by his window.

That’s right! Before everything went downhill, he had a bucket where he’d accept gifts from any of his fans while he was away or was too tired to come out of his house!

“Mr. Onceler, I have a gift for you.”

There was a pause, and then a longer pause. Suddenly, the sounds of clattering metal began to approach. As soon as the bucket was close enough, you hopped in - as best you could anyway.

“Okay I’m leaving now!”

The Onceler waited for what seemed like an eternity before quickly pulling the bucket up to his window. He peeked through the holes of his boarded up window and that’s when he saw…

“Y/N?”

His voice was trembling, and his eyes appeared shiny and reddish.

“Onceler, let me talk to you. Let me help you! You can get through this. It isn’t too-”

“You shouldn’t be here Y/N. The air is too polluted. Go into town, it’s farther. It’ll be safer for you.”

The bucket started to lower, so as fast as you could you swung it forward, grabbing onto the boards. You were now dangling off of them, as the bucket was on the ground.

“Y/N!”

The Onceler punched through the wood and pulled you inside. He fell backwards, and you collapsed on top of him. You could now see the state of his room. It was nearly empty, except for a bed, a drawer, and lots of tissues and empty marshmallow bags all around. Onceler hugged you tight, sniffling and crying.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you away! I was just so lost in my own head. Will you forgive me, Y/N?”

“Of course, Oncie! I was never upset with you, I was just so worried. I wanted to tell you that it isn’t all as bad as it seems. You still have all the money you had before. You still have all this land to remake what’s been destroyed. You still have me! Unless we do something now, this will all be lost to time.”

The Onceler looked at you, and then to the window.

“Unless we… Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to change… That’s it! Y/N, you’re a genius!”

“I am?”

Onceler took your arm and pulled you up off the ground. He walked over to the little drawer and opened it, reaching in to find a little brown seed.

“Oncie… is that?”

“Yes. The last truffula seed. I think you should be the one to plant it.”

“I think we should plant it together. And I have the perfect spot. Come on!”

You led the Onceler back to his wagon you’d been staying in. Everything outside was dark and gray, but the wagon was still a place full of warm light.

“If we plant it here, Oncie, we could bring the forest back. One truffula seed at a time! Does that sound good?”

The Onceler nodded, and you got to work. Using a little shovel you found inside, you dug a hole in the ground. Onceler looked hesitant, so you took his hands in your own and planted the seed into the ground together. You enveloped the little truffula in soil, and stood back to admire your progress.

“Now it just needs…”

“I’ve got it!”

The Onceler ran inside and came back out with a little metal watering can. He watered the seed, and reached out to hold your hand.

“What if it doesn’t grow?”

“I’m sure it will. I’ve heard that truffula trees grow much faster than any other kind. We can check in tomorrow?”

Onceler nodded, and placed his head on top of yours. You felt him shaking a little. With that, you led him inside and sat down on the bed.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“Oh, Y/N, you’ve been troubled with me enough already. I think what I’d like the most would be for you to just relax.”

You smiled, and headed over to the couch to lay down. You assumed the Onceler needed space, since he’d locked himself away for a month now. About a half hour passed, and neither of you were asleep yet.

“Y/N… I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.”

You picked up a bag of marshmallows you’d been munching on, and offered him one in his bed. You fed him some more, and eventually the two of you cuddled to sleep. With that, the night was over. The next day, the truffula seed had grown to a little fluffy pink sprout. Eventually, the two of you managed to replant almost the entire valley together. The Lorax didn’t show up immediately, but in time he came back to help out, bringing back all the wildlife that had travelled away long ago.

and that’s it! hope it’s good and fluffy enough, I got a little carried away in the beginning there 😿

[space-fox-writes]

Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary- Reader's first time meeting Steve

2.2K words

REQUEST ARE OPEN

Y/N scanned the halls for Nancy Wheeler, trying her best to keep her anxiety at bay. When she caught sight of her, she quickly shut her locker, walked up to the tiny girl, and waited for her to finish her conversation with Robin Buckley and Eddie Munson before she would say anything. She kept her eyes down on the floor, looking at the shoes the others were wearing.

"We'll catch you at Steve's tonight, Nance. Bye, Y/N!" Eddie said sweetly to Y/N, bringing said girl out of her head. She looked up just as the other two were leaving, flashing a tiny smile at them before turning to look at Nancy, who was already looking at her.

"Hi, Y/N. Did you need something?" Nancy asked her in a kind tone, looking into Y/N's eyes. A small smile graced her beautiful face, easing Y/N's nerves slightly. A small smile of her own fell onto Y/N's face just as she began to talk.

"Y-yeah. I was wondering if you would be willing to tutor me in math and chemistry? I'm just really having a hard time with everything since it's getting closer to midterms and I'm so worried I'm going to fail them and which would not look good on my applications to college, and I could just really use your help. I-I can pay you, if you want, too, probably not much but it would be better than not paying you because I'm taking up your time-" Y/N rambled but was cut off by a chuckling Nancy.

"Y/N, slow down! I'd be more than happy to help you out. You don't need to pay me. Do you want to start tonight?" Nancy asks, pulling out a piece of paper to write something down.

"Oh, um, I thought I heard Eddie say you were busy tonight. We can start tomorrow if you're free. I don't want to take you away from your friends if you already had plans." Y/N said, looking down just enough not to make eye contact with the other girl across from her.

"It's totally fine! Steve won't mind someone else coming along. It was just dinner and a couple games tonight anyway. We do this every Friday night, it's nothing special. I can go ask Steve right now if it would make you feel better?" Nancy asked, the same small smile from a few minutes ago coming back onto her face.

"Um, yeah. That would make me feel a lot better." Y/N said, following after Nancy on her walk to her station wagon in the parking lot.

Nancy unlocked to door, sliding in and grabbing a walkie-talkie from the glove box, pressing the call button down, and talking into it.

"Steve? It's Nancy. I have a question for you." She said. The radio crackled a few times before a voice was heard through it.

"Yeah, what's up, Nance?" The voice, Steve, Y/N was assuming, said on the other end.

"Y/F/N asked me today if I could help with her midterms, I said I could tonight but she doesn't want to impose on our family night tonight. Is it okay if I bring her along? I told her you would be fine with it but she just wants to make sure." Nancy explained into the radio, releasing the button when she was done talking.

"Of course it's fine! The more the merrier! What kind of pizza does she like? Or if she doesn't like pizza I could pick something else up for her. Does she have any dietary worries I should know about?" Steve asks in a cheery voice. Nancy looks over at Y/N with a big smile, asking her the same question. Y/N answers quietly for Nancy to tell him, then they're saying their goodbyes to each other. Nancy gets out of the car, smiling at Y/N again.

"Well, that settles it then! You'll come and hang out at Steve's house with us tonight and we'll study together. I'm helping Eddie with his midterms tonight as well so this works out great. I'll pick you up at, say, quarter to six at your house?" Nancy asks, getting a nod in return and a slip of paper with Y/N's address on it. "Great! I'll see you tonight Y/N!" Nancy says in a sweet voice before walking back into the school for her last class of the day.

~*~

Y/N switched her sweater out for the third time tonight, deciding on a simple Hawkins High Swim sweatshirt just as she heard Nancy honk her car horn from the driveway, telling her she was waiting for her. Y/N quickly checked her outfit one last time, deciding it would have to be good enough now. When she had gotten home, she quickly took a shower to wash the day off of her and changed into a pair of light wash, baggy jeans, and now, after changing so many times, a sweatshirt. Her hair had been towel dried so it had a little bit of curl to it, falling over her shoulders and down her back. Y/N threw her backpack on and rushed out the door, telling her parents not to wait up for her tonight.

"Hey! We just need to make one stop before we head to Steve's place, I hope that's okay." Nancy said when Y/N got into the car. She nodded her head, putting her bag down at her feet and putting her seatbelt on. 

Once the car stopped at the Henderson's place and said boy made it into the car, Nancy directed them to Steve's house, Y/N could feel her anxiety ramping up slightly. She had never been to Steve Harrington's house before. She had no reason to be at his house in the past. She wasn't really a party type of girl, she preferred to stay at home, reading a book or watching a movie. Not to mention the major crush she had on the Harrington's only child. I mean, who didn't?

Nancy slowly pulled into a large driveway, cutting the engine off before getting out of the car and following the boys up to the door. Y/N took a deep breath just as she got to the front door, following after Nancy into the house and slipping her Vans off, setting them next to Nancy's shoes. 

Y/N could hear loud talking and laughing coming from the living room, which she slowly walked into. The laughing and talking cut off when she walked in, everyone staring at her. Y/N could see Eddie and Robin smile brightly at her, making her feel only a tiny bit better, but not much considering eight other sets of eyes on her. Y/N's eyes gravitate toward the ground until she hears a familiar voice come into the room.

"Okay, I just ordered the pizzas, guy said it would be about half an hour before they got here. What are you all looking at?" Steve asked, turning his head toward the entry to the living room from the front door and stairs. "Oh, you must be Y/N?" He asks, smiling gently at her. 

"Y-yeah, that's me. Sorry to crash your party, Nancy said it would be okay for me to come. But I'll stay out of everyone's hair, I'm just here to study with Nancy." Y/N said quietly, trying her best to hold eye contact with Steve, but failing miserably.

"No, you didn't crash anything! I told Nancy that you're more than welcome to hang out with us!" Steve said with a sweet smile on his face. "Oh, um, I'm Steve, you already know Robin and Eddie, but that's Johnathan. And those gremlins are Max, Jane, Erica, Dustin, Mike, Will, and Lucas." Steve introduced everyone in the room to the newcomer, turning back to her when he finished. Everyone gave a small wave and smile, then went back to their earlier conversations. "You're welcome to come in and make yourself comfortable. I've set up the far end of the dining table for you, Nance, and Eddie whenever you're ready to start studying." Steve said, pointing in the general direction of the dining room. Y/N nodded her head, walking further into the room, only after Nancy walked in.

"Eddie, I think Y/N and I are going to start studying if you want to join us. I know how much you love to play the games with everyone so it would probably be a good idea to study before dinner gets here so you can still play after. That sound okay?" Nancy asked the metalhead, to which he nodded his head, grabbing his bag from next to him and walking off to the dining room. Nancy and Y/N followed him, seeing where Steve set up a place for them. He had pens, pencils, and highlighters sitting in the middle with a pencil sharpener off to the side slightly. Y/N smiled at the thought that Steve made sure they had everything they needed before they got started. "Okay, why don't we start with math? You're in the same math class, I believe, yes?" Nancy asked, earning a nod from the other two.

Y/N pulled out her math notebook and textbook, flipping to the page the teacher assigned them to, and started on the problems on the page.

For the next twenty minutes, Y/N, Nancy, and Eddie worked on the math problems their teacher had given them for the weekend, Nancy occasionally helping the two of them when they asked for it. Just as Y/N was getting to the second page of math equations, Steve walked in with several boxes of pizza, setting them on the dining table, and yelling for everyone to come and get it. Before Y/N could even put her pencil back down on her paper to keep writing, everyone came rushing into the room, throwing the pizza boxes open and grabbing their slices of dinner, Nancy and Eddie among those getting food.

"Are you going to come get some Y/N?" Nancy asked, looking over to said girl, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh, uh, yeah just give me a few minutes to finish this problem." Y/N said, giving the others a small smile. She looked back down at the textbook once she got a nod from Nancy.

Half an hour later, Y/N was still working on her math, with no food on a plate in front of her. She was startled from her concentration when Steve sat down next to her, placing a plate in front of her with three pieces of pizza on it, a smile on his face.

"I noticed you never got up for dinner and wanted to save some for you before the gremlins picked over everything." He said, pointing to the plate between the two of them.

"Oh, um, thank you." Y/N said quietly, blushing slightly.

Steve just gave her a big grin before looking down at her sweatshirt. "Are you on the swim team? I was the captain for three years including my senior year." Steve said with a proud smile.

"Oh, um, no. My older brother was on the team all four years of school. His name was Carter, he really thought you were cool. Looked up to you a lot." Y/N explained with a smile of her own on her lips.

"Oh, yeah I know Carter. But I thought your last name was Y/L/N. The back of the sweatshirt says Wentworth." Steve says, a confused look taking over his face. Y/N couldn't help but chuckle slightly at how cute he was.

"It is. He took our stepdad's last name when our mom remarried, I kept my dad's name. Never liked my step-family much."

"Ah, makes sense. Your brother was pretty cool. I knew he had a little sister but I had no idea she was so cute and shy." Steve said, the same smile from before gracefully falling onto his face once more. Y/N smiled down at her homework again, a fierce blush taking over her cheeks.

"I'm not so much as shy, it's just my anxiety. And I'm not cute." She said, the last one more to herself than to Steve.

"Oh come on. You're very cute. Don't sell yourself short there, sweetheart." Steve said, trying to convince the girl in front of him. "Well, everyone is getting antsy to start playing a few games so why don't you come join us? Take a break from your work and have some fun, get to know everyone." Steve said, standing from his spot at the table.

"Oh, no that's fine. I don't want to intrude on your game night. It's enough that you're feeding me. I don't want to step on anyone's toes." Y/N said, shaking her head and dropping the easy smile that was on her plump lips.

"I already told you that you didn't intrude or ruin anything. Max and Jane were pestering me to come in here and get you to play some games with us. They're excited to meet you and pull you into this little rag-tag group we have," Steve said, a blush starting to creep up on his face. "And I was hoping to get to know you a bit better, maybe ask you out on a date?" He asked, the blush fully taking over his face by now. It was pretty cute.

"Okay, but only because I was promised a date from Steve Harrington. I'll hold you to that, I hope you know that." Y/N joked, smiling as a grin broke out on Steve's face.

"Yeah! We can hash out the details before you leave tonight!" Steve said excitedly. Y/N smiled up at him, following him out of the dining room and to the packed living room.

[taeyongsfemdom]

A Chaotic Analysis Of The TaeyongsFemdom Universe.

(Sorry I had to add this 😅)

Hey Bitches ❤️ So for this post, I will be discussing the lore within my page and the stories i’ve written so far that are within TYFD universe, I’m doing this like those TV show or book plot breakdowns (i.e Mike’s Mic PLL video and caricanread’s acotar breakdown) 

•quick tw: small mentions of abuse, murder & light gore.

•note: This whole page is a dark romance with a little bit of horror movie vibes. More lore will be added to this post as more fics/minis are written.

•tropes: good boy/bad girl, fem!billionaire reverse grumpy/sunshine, touch him and die, fem. serial killer, femdom relationship, age gap.

So, this all begins with a beautiful young woman who runs her own sex toy company and her employees are seven men (NCT 127 members) with Mark Lee being her assistant and right hand man. Mark was introduced in A Deal With The Devil, there was a day where he took her to a farmer's market that he goes to all the time because of the fresh watermelon (🤡)

First off, this woman is a glamorous ass bitch. She's a CEO! She always has a fierce outfit on, hair looking good, nails done and a banging body to match.

If things don't go her way then it's the motherfucking highway and she gets what she wants whenever she wants it.

"I know how powerful I am. I'm smart and beautiful! Everyone either loves or hates me, men want me and bitches fear me. I know what I want and I always get what I want"

The man running the market knows Mark very well and he introduces her to him. While talking to the owner, she sees a young boy working in the field behind the counter, and she asks who he is and the owner introduces him to the duo and his name is Taeyong. The woman became infatuated with him in a heartbeat, the way he could barely stare at her because of how pretty she was, his eyes glued to the ground which made her smile, she just thought that he was the cutest thing to ever exist, but she noticed something was off.

"I could care less about the man Mark was talking to, I was too focused on the boy beside him. I just couldn't stop looking, he was perfect in every way possible. A strangely beautiful face, cute rosy cheeks and these massive chocolate eyes that made him look so sweet, like an actual living doll. The twisted bitch in my brain was just shouting at me to take and put him in a dollhouse. I just had to have him".

She decided to go back a few days later, hopping in her black g-wagon and driving to the market during a storm. She gets to the market and sees a light inside a shack, yelling coming from the inside. The voice of the owner berating Taeyong along with the sound of slapping and punching, her eyes spot him on the floor covering himself for protection from the blows with bruises and blood on him.

"CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT? I SHOULD JUST THROW YOUR LITTLE ASS ON THE STREET SO YOU CAN SLEEP IN THE RAIN"

While his back was turned, the woman grabbed a nearby shovel and with a loud ass BANG the man fell to the floor, a bloody gash appearing on the back of his head as he fell unconscious. Blood covered her face as she watched Taeyong look at her with pure terror & a mix of relief.

"Come with me...WE NEED TO GO!"

He took her hand as the both of them ran to the car while getting soaked in the rain, rushing him into the front seat as she threw the shovel in the trunk before speeding off into the night. She took Taeyong in, letting him stay inside her massive home, and baby she lives in a nice ass mansion (see post about the home she lives in) She cleaned him up, and gave him a new life. Bought him new clothes and many other nice things, basically showering him with gifts and love since he's never had anything like that before, she told him that she would take care of everything. He even offered to cook and clean for her as a thank you.

(side note: her housekeeper had stopped showing up ever since she moved into her new mansion so it was a win-win situation, so Taeyong became a housewife of some sort)

"Don't ever think you're going back to that old life, you're gonna be staying with me for a very long time"

Weeks pass on and she gets a call from Zhong Chenle and he personally wanted to hire her to be Taeyong’s manager after firing the current ones for being sketchy ever since he took over SM Entertainment. The woman was unaware that Taeyong was a kpop idol and thought he just worked at a little market, Chenle tells her that he’s been trying to get Taeyong to leave that market so he can focus on his career.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were an idol? I just got a call from the CEO about being your new manager” 

"Y..you’re my new manager?  

"Apparently I am! Why didn’t you tell me about any of this?"

"Because I thought you were gonna look at me differently. Are you gonna kick me out?"

"Honey, I would never kick you out, I just need you to be honest with me, okay?" 

(We'll be talking more on Taeyong later....)

The woman hired a good friend of hers named Norilyn to be her assistant to help her with this managing gig, the woman made sure everything ran smoothly during photo-shoots or events that he would attend, being one of his biggest supporters and being there for him if he was anxious or scared.

•She was giving very much Kris Jenner mom-ager "You're doing amazing sweetie" vibes. And here's a cute fun fact: the woman speaks korean very fluently, and this shocks the fuck outta Taeyong. She also helps him improve with his english speaking (cute)

"You're so kind, I appreciate you so much for being there for me!"

“Of course, angel cake! That’s what I'm here for. I'll always be there for you"

One thing that we learn about the woman is that she's unhinged. Back then, she was a serial killer who specifically targeted mysogynistic men who looked down on women. While working her way in life, she faced many white men who were just disgusting human beings and let's just say...they never made it back home at night to their loving families.

She actually calmed down with the murders for several years after she started her company but unfortunately this managing job is really bringing out the murderous bitch in her (yikes.)

The woman ended up developing an obsession with Taeyong and became very possessive over him as years passed on. She started calling him "little rose" as a nickname. Her eyes were on him 24/7 and watched every move he made, becoming deadly if anyone approached her precious rose that wasn't her.

"I'll kill anyone who even dares to touch him"

Ever since she murdered the man that was abusing him, something in her just snapped.

(this where the murdering starts back up again)

She has two secret rooms, a weapon room and her basement where she brings her victims teach them a lesson with the help of her good friend Qian Kun who has a team of skilled assassins at his side.

“Now, tell me what we learned today?”

“N..not to speak a..about Taeyong”

“Or what?”

“Y..you’ll cut my dick off”

“Good! Because if I hear you say another word about my rose again, i’ll cut that shit off and let you bleed out on my floor"

The hallway that leads to her gun room and the basement ⬇️

Ms. Thing definitely got something going on upstairs (if you catch my drift) we already know that tyongfs are insane, but this chick is literally 10x worse! She will get her hands dirty if something happened to Taeyong and would probably murder everyone in a fit of rage tbh. (One of these days he'll find her coated in blood) she can also fight too! She's not scared to hit a bitch when it comes to Taeyong either lol.

(Deadass will fight someone like this 😂 ^)

The murder at the farmer's market made it on the news but the killer was never found so the case went cold, and that's exactly what the woman wanted. The shovel that was coated in blood was in her rose garden and was completely cleaned of fingerprints. She obviously wasn't gonna tell anyone about this except for right hand woman Mason who helps her with murders, and she wasn't gonna tell Taeyong about it because she didn't wanna scare him to death, so she decided to keep quiet about it.

Now let’s talk about Taeyong for a minute:

I wanted to come back to him to point out a few things. Besides the fact that he’s an idol, he is very naive and believes everything that is told to him (alarming btw) so the woman takes advantage of this so she can take care of "personal business" like she'll literally be slaughtering someone like cattle in her basement and he wouldn't even know. Gotta hand it to her, she makes sure that her victims are killed quietly so he won't hear anything.

(We still love him though 💕💕🌹🌹)

Still on the topic of Taeyong, he is not only her obsession, he was also her little fuck-toy. We find out that he's into being dominated but specifically by a woman, he believes that he should be submissive and obedient while a woman works and makes the money for the household. The both of them made an agreement about a dom/sub relationship behind closed doors, making her his manager and goddess. He would be kneeling at her feet while she sits at her throne, his lips spilling praises while kissing her high heels after rewarding or punishing him, just being grateful for his beautiful goddess.

"What do you say while on the floor worshiping my feet, pet?" 

"Thank you, goddess!" 

"Are you gonna be a good boy for me, little rose?"

"Y..yes, goddess" 

"That's a good pet! I'm gonna have so much fun with you"

The two became very close over the years while living together, Taeyong quickly falling in love with her since he's never seen or been with a woman like her. Seeing how confident, powerful and beautiful she was (he really did see her as goddess that was sent to him by the gods themselves) he didn't really notice how much of a ✨️possessive queen✨️ she is buuuutttt he was living his best life in a luxurious mansion with a beautiful psychopath.

"I really like being here with you, doing things like cooking and cleaning, along with you being my manager and umm...."

"The woman of your dreams?"

"U..uh yeah, y..you can say that"

"Don't lie to me boy, I can see you blushing. Also i'm not sure if you remember what I told you when you first started living with me, little rose. I have a lot of power, nobody will ever think to disrespect you when i'm around, I control everything and everyone...including you, little rose"

"Yes, goddess"

And that is basically the lore around my page! Just to let ya'll know that this is not real and is all just fiction- 💋🥀

[prettytragcdies]

"I knew this was a mistake. I tried to tell you, but no. You're the big brother, and you always have to be right."

"What’re you talkin' about?" John Ross had barely stepped foot into the kitchen before the accusations were being hurled in his direction. To say he was confused as to where they were coming from and what had suddenly brought them on would be a definite understatement.

"Like you don't know," Scarlett scoffed, clearly not in the mood. "That little plan to have Mama committed -- that I still can't believe I let you talk me into, by the way -- it completely backfired right in our faces. She clearly doesn't trust either one of us, and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she actually hates us for how cold and cruel we were."

A somewhat involuntary roll of the eyes was John Ross' initial response to his younger sister's argument. She always did have a flair for the dramatics, ever since they were kids. Some things truly never changed.

"I didn't force you to do anything, Scar. If you didn't want to go along with the plan, you never should've agreed to it."

Maybe her brother had a point, but that didn't mean Scarlett was ready to admit to anything just yet. Oh no, she wouldn't back down and move on until she'd come out on top victorious in the whole thing, whether she was actually in the right or not.

"We should've found another way to handle it. That's all I'm saying. I mean, she was sober for over two decades before she fell off the wagon this time. That has to count for something, right? Maybe all she needed was a couple of drinks to get her through the initial shock of everything, and ---"

Now it was John Ross' turn to scoff. Did Scarlett honestly not remember what it was like when they were growing up? Had she for one reason or another purposely blocked out the times when J.R. had told them Sue Ellen was sick, when in actual reality she was simply too drunk to tuck them into bed at night?

"I'm not tryin' to make excuses for her." That much Scarlett wanted to make clear, almost as if she could read her brother's mind in that moment. "I just remember certain things differently than you do. That's all."

"Do share," he prompted, both wanting as well as needing a bit more elaboration.

"I'm just sayin' that by the time I was old enough to retain actual memories, she'd already quit drinking. She and Daddy were happy together, and we were a real family. Then when the Wicked Witch of Weststar swooped in and completely ruined everything, instead of goin' right back to the bottle, she just tried to ruin Daddy's life instead."

The explanation made enough sense, but John Ross still stood by his earlier decision.

"Just because you might not remember how bad things used to be, it doesn't mean she doesn't have a problem."

Once again, there was no valid argument for Scarlett to fire back with, and both siblings knew it.

"We did what we had to do at the time. What's done is done." As far as he was concerned, it truly was as simple as that.

The smallest hint of a soft sigh filled the space between them as Scarlett finally gave in, just not before having the last word.

"I hope you're right, Jerkface.”

i finally figured out what to do with some of the gifs i matched up of the ewing siblings, so i hope you like it, labyriinths. enjoy! :)

[lizsurvived]

What do you do when you dated a man for nearly 2 years who started to hurt you at around 6 months into moving in together, who you for some stupid fucked up reason were hopelessly in love with, almost strangles you to death but you have no real proof? 

Okay wait I'm sorry, I need to explain a little more. When I met him, he was a 2 years sober musician and welding artist  and we spent the bulk of our time together working out and working in the garage on painting and welding everyday for hours. Sometimes 4 to 6 hrs a day late into the night after work. He was not an affectionate person with me. Women loved him, he was good looking and he let everyone know it. He had a very huge ego. He stopped using meth intravenously 2 yrs before we met. He fell off the wagon when his mother had a brain aneurysm 6 months into the relationship.

Everything spiraled out of control. There were about month-long periods he would go sober, the next month he'd be shooting up every 2 mins for two weeks, then repeat. His behavior became more violent and paranoid as the months went on. There came a point when I came to the conclusion that it was in my best interest to not upset him, at all costs. And I was addicted to him. I was addicted to the person that I met, not who he was becoming more and more every day.

The only way I can describe why I felt like I couldn't leave for so long is... I can only compare it to a Manson-like brainwashing. He got me legal prescription uppers which I abused all day for a week each month. The ups were so high and the amount of canvases I painted and the amount of art the both he and I were coming out with was unbelievable. But when the high was over and the pills ran out, the lows... The lows were extremely and unbearably low. Being poisonously, blindly in love with an evil man is something that I never thought that I would ever in a million years understand. I'm sad to say that now, I do understand. 

Fast forward to the end of the two year relationship. Things were getting better and he was sober and healthy. Other than being an asshole pig, he seemed almost sane. I realized that if I was going to leave, I needed to leave and asap. Him being stable-ish left more potential for the breakup going semi "smoothly". One morning he left for the gym and it was as if someone was whispering to me to get what I could grab quickly and throw my belongings into trash bags and throw it all in my car. I called my sister who lived 6 hours away, and we planned for my getaway. I waited until he got back, we had a reasonable breakup and I left. I actually got out of there unscathed. 

I'm ashamed to say we were texting and talking on and off when I first moved away because I clearly was having issues letting go. I was so used to a constant fight-or-flight state of mind, state of being, that I couldnt separate myself him completely. Not to mention he decided that he had an epiphany that he "didn't know he was in love with me till I left" kind of thing. I could tell he believed he meant that. Regardless of whether or not it was true... I digress. I told him I hooked up with someone and he started sending me pictures of his wrists slit deeply and started taunting me on the phone while he was cutting himself over and over. 

Things were done at that point. 

Now, flash forward about 3 months. We meet at a hotel and have sex and spend that weekend together. I have bipolar disorder and my impulsivity was very high. Not to mention I had no one to talk to, no friends and my sister and I had a falling out, not that any of that is any excuse.

He was high. I didn't get hurt. He professed love and seemed to really believe himself about it. It was hard not to be drawn into his declarations of love because I had spent two years in love with the man when he never returned any romantic affection and hardly kissed me. It was so illuring that I felt that I couldn't resist. We part ways and plan to see each other again. 

We text on and off. Then I visit him again at his home for a week. It was time for me to leave. I was getting ready to go. Apparently he was looking through my phone and found an old picture of someone I was talking to on a dating site. 

This is when it happens. 

The first thing he does is punch me square in the mouth and my lip is instantly split in three places. There is blood everywhere and he is punching me in the top, sides and back of the head while holding me down on the bed. 

This part is hard for me. Well, all of this is hard but I worry this will impact me for a long time and in the future. He grabbed my head with his hands and placed his thumbs over my eyes and pushed hard with all of his weight. He was trying to push my eyes in. I screamed bloody murder and managed to bite his right pointer finger and bit hard, sinking my canine tooth into his finger and refusing to let it go. 

It seemed that he thought I had "gone too far" because the level of rage that I was experiencing from him seemed to double, and he started to strangle me, holding me down on the bed. I wish this wasn't true but it was minutes long where I could not breath and I was fighting for my life writhing around and straining my back, arms and legs to somehow free myself. His right arm was holding my left arm down while I was on my back on the bed while he kept my legs from moving by blocking them with his legs, all the while he is strangling me with his left hand... I started to feel myself slipping away, and I knew I was about to pass out and possibly die. 

Something nudged me to start mouthing, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Over and over just as I could feel my lights going out, because I thought there must be a chance that he'll stop if I say something he might want to hear. Thank fuck I was right. I can't remember him letting go of me but I remember I scrambled off of the bed and into the corner of the room, half screaming, half crying as I coughed and gasped for air. That's when he said, "I'm sorry liz but you're aren't leaving."  Then he picked up a knife from inside the bedside drawer (a dull steak knife) and and he was cutting himself with it and pacing around the room. I was sure that I was about to be stabbed to death. 

I left everything I had, even my phone, but I ran out the front door crying and screaming and I realized he was in his underwear and shirt. We we're both on the front lawn in the middle of the night. He claimed that he was turning it into something sexual or something... He tried to put my hand on his dick and I recoiled and stepped back. I actually laughed and said "you tried to kill me... You tried to kill me!!!" And I ran to my car and drove off. Luckily my keys were still in my back pocket. God that was so lucky... 

Everyone I spoke to that night to call for help told me NOT to go to the ER or report him. Honestly... Everyone was scared of what he might do if I reported him. No one wanted me to "start anything". I'm honestly still too afraid of him to report him. The only proof I even have is an unwashed, bloody t shirt in a box. Not really sure why I'm posting this. I just am so sick of this feeling like such a secret. I want to warn the entire world to stay away from this man at all costs and yet my family and I are too fearful for our lives and well-beings to do so.... But I'm truly, truly worried for his next victim(s). He's extremely strong. He's an amateur MMA fighter and when he's on drugs he's even stronger than normal. He's completely unhinged. He is a monster. 

Please. Run the fuck away as soon as that little voice tells you too, don't wait before it's too late. It was almost too late for me. And please, if your loved one is in a physically abusive relationship or if you suspect they are, find a legal loophole to find a way to remove them from that household, against their will if necessary. I wish someone had done that for me a long time ago. The way we are taught to handle adult physical abuse is WRONG. We shame those who are in abusive relationships to the point where they begin to ostracize themselves from their loved ones, only driving them further into the relationship and the abuse. It's all they know. Human beings can get used to anything. Get them out. Now. Find a way. 

Also, if you have any advice on how to get this guy thrown away in prison ig lemme know, cuz I'm at a loss. (this all happened less than 5 months ago)

-Liz 

[pesterloglog]

Dirk Strider, Jane Crocker

Act 6, page 5821-5838

TT: Is it still going on?

GG: No, it stopped.

TT: What do you think it was?

GG: I don't know. Maybe an earthquake?

TT: I'm not sure if these moons can have earthquakes.

GG: Doesn't matter.

GG: Some sort of Prospitian lunar anomaly, I guess. Probably nothing to worry about.

TT: Maybe it was like, tidal forces. Due to gravitation.

TT: Or the tensile forces from that big ass chain.

GG: Um. Yes! Let's say that's what it was.

TT: Have you and Roxy been talking?

GG: Yes.

TT: Is she pissed at me or something?

TT: She won't talk to me.

GG: No, not at all.

TT: Then what gives.

GG: She was wondering the same about you.

TT: What?

GG: Are you disappointed in her?

TT: Why would I be?

GG: It seemed that way to her earlier.

GG: When you chastised her for drinking again.

TT: Well, yeah. I was upset she fell off the horse.

TT: Or the wagon. The horse wagon. Whatever.

TT: The thing you ride around on when you ain't drinking.

TT: But so what. There was cotton candy in her hair, and she was being stupid. What do you expect? It was a moment of indiscretion.

TT: I'm not mad at her and I'm not disappointed in her. That's ridiculous.

TT: Want to know what I really think of Roxy?

TT: I'm proud of her.

TT: She's the only one of us who could face her problems and then get down to business and actually solve them.

TT: No endless hand wringing or suffering in silence or any of that bullshit.

TT: She saw she had an addiction. And then decided to fucking fix it. Just like that.

TT: She's probably stronger than the other three of us put together.

TT: Remember way back before this started, we were talking. You and me.

TT: And I was rambling at length about leadership, like I actually had a clue what I was talking about?

GG: I remember.

GG: You said I would be the leader of our team, in name and in spirit.

GG: Although I never really felt like it.

TT: Yeah. That's kind of the point.

TT: I guess in a way, I was right. But not how I expected.

TT: See, to be perfectly honest, we are a party of losers.

TT: Heroes make shit happen. But that's not what we do, or what we're even SUPPOSED to do.

TT: We wait.

TT: We wait for literally everything. We wait for other people to reach out first so we can fix our relationships. We wait for these legendary heroes to arrive and bring competence and promise to a futile situation.

TT: Even now. Look at us. What are we waiting for?

TT: To kill ourselves? For someone to come along and do it for us?

TT: It doesn't even matter.

TT: As the four nobles of the void session, we do what we were created to do.

TT: We sit around on our asses.

TT: Waiting.

TT: We were all designated for a session that was utterly inert.

TT: A place where the mechanisms for success never even existed to begin with.

TT: In such a place it makes sense that the formal leader would be neutralized, to made feel unempowered and static.

TT: And it seems particularly fitting she would be the noble of life in a realm of the dead.

TT: A realm that foretold of a life player who felt lifeless, a hope player who felt hopeless, and a heart player who was just a stone cold motherfucker.

TT: When we talked about leadership, and I was all on my high horse telling you how shit would go down...

TT: I also said I would be the one "pulling the strings." Remember? That I'd be the functional leader of our party.

TT: And there might have been something to that, in a different session.

TT: But what good is a "man of action" in a place where action itself is intrinsically fruitless?

TT: So it's occurred to me that by some tragic flaw in its design, our session was meant to be leaderless.

TT: And I'd feel safe concluding that. Except for a feeling that's been gnawing at me.

TT: It's the feeling that it would make perfect sense if a session like this had a dark horse leader.

TT: A leader who was invisible to us all along. Fittingly, a void player to lead a void session.

TT: She would be a leader not in name or in spirit or in function, whatever that means.

TT: But more of an emotional leader, who would selflessly try to hold everyone together while the rest of us did our best to fall apart.

TT: And Roxy has been that for us every step of the way, going unnoticed and unappreciated.

TT: Think of how much shit she's had to put up with from all of us.

TT: She never complains, never turns it around and makes it about her problems.

TT: She just works her ass off making sure we all stay friends.

TT: If that isn't a leader, I don't know what is.

TT: So that's how crazy it is for her to think I'm disappointed in her.

TT: The truth is, she's the most amazing person I ever knew.

TT: She's everything in a human being I wish I could be, but can't because I'm in my own way.

TT: Honestly, I'm not even sure if I'm worthy of dying next to her.

TT: I think she probably felt bad for hitting on me all those years. Like I was getting fed up with her, or something.

TT: But all it really did was make me feel guilty.

TT: That I couldn't give her what she wanted.

TT: Like, settle down and have a couple weirdo goddamn kids with her some day.

TT: I guess there were times I thought about it. Being all alone on Earth with her and stuff.

TT: I couldn't though.

TT: Have to stay true to myself.

TT: Still, she would deserve it.

TT: Nobody deserves to get all the things they always wanted more than she does.

TT: And it suddenly seems kinda stupid that I think these things about her but she doesn't even know it.

TT: I guess I should tell her all this some time.

GG: I think that would be nice.

GG: Of course, she IS right there, you know.

TT: I know.

TT: I'm a little reluctant to drop all that on her.

TT: Looking at what I just said, it's...

TT: Kind of overwhelming?

TT: I feel like in a way you can destroy somebody with effusive praise.

TT: Or maybe I'm just projecting how I would feel about that kind of intense positivity coming at me. I dunno.

TT: But I still think confessions like that can change stuff between people. Like the way they act around each other.

GG: Maybe it's worth it?

TT: Maybe.

TT: Or maybe it's better to just say...

TT: Not so much of it?

TT: Like all at once.

TT: Maybe it'd be better for now if you could pass a short message to her for me.

TT: If only to help kill this awkward silence between us.

GG: Like what?

TT: Could you just tell her,

TT: I love her?

TT: No wait!

TT: I mean.

TT: Not in that way though.

TT: More like...

GG: Dirk, I know what way you mean!

TT: Ok. Good.

TT: Yeah.

TT: No, wait.

TT: Don't.

TT: That would be a weird mixed signal. I mean...

TT: It's true.

TT: But please say something else instead.

GG: Uh, Dirk...

GG: Something's happening.

TT: Tell her that I'm proud of her.

TT: And as a person she's everything I wish I could be.

TT: I wish I could be as nice and loving and selfless as her.

TT: But can't.

TT: Because I'm too busy being me.

GG: Dirk!!!

GG: The tremors are back.

GG: BIG TIME.

TT: That's weird.

TT: I can feel it too this time.

[ritavonbees]

Everyone comes to this by a different path, so let me add mine - also highly urban.

I had a year of parental leave with each of my babies, starting June 18 and June 20. first one i was mostly wandering around with little cartoon stars and birdies circling my head. I kinda got into diy/recycling crafts and Street Bounty and low waste object swapping Facebook groups. one place you can reliably take a baby is parks, so i touched more grass than the year before. but then the bushfire summer hit. stuck inside with a baby i spent a lot of time on macrame Instagram. i read so many fucking tutorials. then once i could go outside again i picked up some jacaranda twigs and went, huh. i think i could make a basket out of these.

i looked up a YouTube tutorial. i made a basket. it felt good.

a lot of this stuff fell by the wayside when i went back to work full time.

baby two, pandemic boogaloo, I'm back on Instagram and random basket weaving websites. I'm taking the kids to the park and examining the long grass to see if I can twine it. I'm sitting indoors being completely exhausted and browsing lists of plants you can do crafts with. I'm picking up a cool stick with flowers on it on the way home from daycare and putting it in a jar of water and it's growing little fucking miniature plants off its leaves what the fuck it's fucking magic????

I make a very silly post in a local Plant People Facebook group like great, now i gotta be responsible for this fucking plant (what do) and strangers are laughing with me, explaining things to me, driving past to do contactless drop off of a small pot with some dirt in it.

I live in a fifth floor flat and I'm into fucking plants now I guess.

I discover that succulents are trendy at the moment and bits of them fall off people's balconies a lot.

I crowd every available surface in my bedroom with cuttings, mostly in water.

I keep the internet posted about my new interest. friends I've never talked to about this topic before turn out to be into plants. they give me cuttings and seeds.

by the time I go back to work again I've got plants I can't just drop like a macrame project - they need looking after so they don't die. When I don't have energy to spare outside of work and trying to make babies go to sleep? I'm taking five minutes every day to check on the plants. Aha when my husband says "I've got the kids this morning and you're going outside to do something for yourself" I've got a local landcare group to volunteer with - they maintain patches of native wildlife in my area.

long-winded way to say. Something genuinely changed for me because I hitched my wagon to something with its own rhythm. But the community part is also vital. I needed that connection. I'm not cut out to be a hermit in the woods, I don't have the executive function lol. But engaging with the environment has always been a collective action of human groups. And a city is nothing if not an abundance of human community potential, whether or not it's currently being directed towards something you can engage with.

does your city have community gardens? Permaculture orgs? landcare societies? if you can get out there on a regular basis, you learn a lot by talking to old people while doing simple tasks like weeding. if not (and since we moved house I haven't had the time or energy to find these things in my new area yet), there are so many podcasts and YouTube channels and Facebook groups and discord servers -

I agree with 'listen to the plants' but it's also very productive to listen to people.

I really like your posts about nature and plants. I live in a big city, and I would like to be more connected with the natural world around me, as limited as it may be. I wanted to ask if you might have any advice. So far I know a good portion of the types of trees, wildflowers, and birds. And I like to visit the parks and public gardens. But I would love to take steps to learn even more. What would you suggest? Thank you for your time :)

Once you know what some of the plants and animals are, you are in a good place to pay attention to what they do. What they teach. Their ways, their work. That sounds fanciful. It's not—they are not objects, things, they are creatures. Even plants have ways of living and growing, responding to their environment, and belonging to a community.

Pay attention to the plants that no one planted—the plants that popped up on their own. Pay attention to where they thrive and where they struggle. When you see a sad and frail plant, ask why is it sad? When you see a flourishing plant, ask the reasons for its success. Pay attention to their behavior.

This one creeps across the ground like a shaggy rug, and this one shoots up tall and straight. What does this mean?

When you see a plant growing in an unusual place, ask, How did it get here? Maybe it was the wind? Maybe it was water, or a bird?

Consider first the plants you see everywhere, in cracks in the pavement and in the seams between brick pavers. The brave dandelion, the tenacious goosegrass, the low-creeping spurge, perhaps. Maybe say hello. I say hello to plants. Become familiar with where they grow, their companions, and what hardships do them harm.

It takes repetition to notice how many living things are around you. Look again—there are more plants in the shoulder of the road or the little neglected patch of mulch than you could see before! (Hello, hello, hello, hello. Hello! hello!)

You will start to realize things. It will seem to fall out of the sky into your head. The apparent randomness of the plants that grow in the neglected places disappears. There is an elegance to the ways of weeds: some arrive first, and some come after their companions; some tolerate the harsh baking sun and some cling to shady crevices; some are found in only a specific place...and some are surprises you never would have expected.

Look closely at patches of grass and roadsides and parks, and sooner or later it will happen: Oh. That's not a weed or a wildflower...that's a baby tree.

I got started with growing plants by gently pulling them up from pavement at the shoulder of the road in my neighborhood. It took two months to figure out how to help them survive. The method I worked out was to punch holes in the bottom of red solo cups and use them as pots, keeping them outside in the shade of the Virginia creeper vine, elevated about 2 inches above the porch on some metal shelves I fished out of the trash. Their roots need to be moist, but they can't be soggy—good drainage is vital. I like to mix sand and half-rotted leaves in with their potting mix.

The red solo cup is about as small as you can go without exposing the roots to too much temperature and moisture change. You should not get the plant's leaves dirty or wet if at all possible—bring transplanted is quite a shock, and you can introduce rot and sickness at such a delicate time.

You don't have to grow any plants for yourself, but it is awfully tempting, because for the most part, no one can stop you. That's the thing that was so life-changing to me. Even in a highly controlled human environment, even amidst traffic, extreme conditions, and herbicides, the plants have not given up on us.

I didn't start in the woods, I started on the side of the road, paying attention to the tiny seedlings that were trying to return my home to forest. It was in the world of pavement and lawns that my first major realizations came—oh. Nature is on our side, fighting back. Nature has not left us. They are so brave and so, so tough, and we can take care of them.

And it is true that the diversity and robustness of the forest or the grassland or the bog or the canebrake is incredible compared to the human world, and it makes me sad how few of those incredible living things can survive close to our inconsiderate ways...but the straggling weeds and brave seedlings that emerge are typically here because they are the pioneer species. They are the first: they are adapted to begin the healing after destruction. Admire them for their bravery and aggression. I admire even the kudzu and Bradford pear, even though I also feel sorry for them and the other invasive species as I rip them out of the ground. It's like someone in a zombie movie pulling the trigger on a loved one who has turned, except the monster is even more clearly a result of our own folly.

I could write forever about this, but your journey is your own. Listen to them and they will show you. Behave contrary to the expectations of our world; view other life forms as your neighbors instead of mere objects.

This is the way to unlock the shackles of helplessness. You may think to yourself: Our world is dying, and I can't do anything to help. But you are not alone.

Notice, notice, notice how many more living things can live in the presence of a single tree, how the unkempt areas shelter and protect life. Notice where life is and where it thrives.

And you, a human, can be a caretaker too, protecting life where it reaches out to you. Oaks give you acorns and flowers give you seeds, trusting forces beyond their control to bring them to places where they can thrive. Wildflowers grow in the grass, asking nothing from us except mercy.

Hello Yarrow, who dressed the wounds of Achilles. Hello Dandelion, who resists annihilation, food for insects and humans. Hello Virginia Creeper, who shades my window, shelters my saplings from the sun, and feeds birds on their migration. Hello Pokeweed, giving us your brilliant pinks and purples as dyes, desperate food of the poor and enslaved. Hello American Burnweed, who sequesters atmospheric nitrogen polluting the air. Hello Frost Aster, breaker of cycles, surviving roadsides and lawns, blooming at the first frost with incredible abundance to feed the butterflies and bees. Hello Horseweed, first to evolve resistance to Roundup. Hello Crabgrass, ruiner of lawns, brought here by enslaved people as food.

The pioneer species make shelter for the others. They shade the ground, their scrubby growth catches the leaves and gathers them to rot over the winter, and their roots and dense foliage hold the slowly building topsoil in place and keep it moist. They are weeds, tough as nails and twice as mean. Many are useful, edible, medicinal.

Where plants grow without being planted, that is a sign that the ecosystem we are part of still works to restore it. We do not have to save the world all by ourselves. We have help. The rest of Nature has not abandoned us.

There is no clearly defined answer. It is a journey and a conversation. Listen, pay attention, ask questions of even the humblest little moss and bug and flower. They will teach you.

[waheelawhisperer]

On the topic of RWBY, and particularly Ironwood: it was my opinion that with Ozpin's secret still fresh in their minds, the police state Atlas fell into under Ironwood's control, and the secret commandos that reports only to him that arrested them, Team RWBY was fully justified in not trusting Ironwood even if he divulged excellent and honest information about a perfectly sound plan. However, I feel the failure in writing was that they never expressed that - Ruby just 'has a feeling'. Thoughts?

Yes, I do in fact have many thoughts on this one, and they've been a long time coming. I'd have gotten this post out sooner, but I had to rewatch Volumes 6 and 7 beforehand and take notes, and that took me forever. Buckle up, because this is going to be a long one.

To respond to the ask directly, I'll be honest: I don't think the writing failed to express that. The characters express their motivations behind the choice at multiple points throughout the Volume, and the narrative throws up red flags over and over again.

Let's start off by recapping the situation at the end of Volume 6:

Team RWBY's trust in authority figures has been severely shaken by the time they get to Atlas. In Volume 5, the following events occurred - Yang learned that Raven (someone who Tai has built up as a complicated but ultimately good person when talking about her) was a coward who was willing to hide behind her to avoid fighting back against Salem; Leonardo Lionheart sold the group out to Salem; Yang specifically mentioned "no more lies and half-truths" when she agreed to follow Ozpin. In Volume 6, the group learned that Ozpin was in fact continuing to tell them lies and half-truths (for justifiable reasons, from his perspective) and Qrow fell off the wagon and started actively hindering the group by forcing them to carry his dead weight. Then they had to deal with Cordovin being stupid and obstructive while Ozpin straight-up dipped and Qrow tried to give up. Every significant authority figure Team RWBY has encountered since the Fall of Beacon except for Maria Calavera and Saphron/Terra has let them down in some way at this point. Is it any wonder they're reluctant to trust Ironwood initially, even without seeing what's actually going on in Atlas?

Then the group actually arrives. Immediately, Weiss and Qrow, the two people most familiar with Atlas, note that something is wrong:

Ruby: Weiss, what is it?

Weiss: The Atlas air fleet... I knew all of our ships were called back, but...

Qrow: They're set up like they're expecting an attack...

(Volume 6, Episode 13).

Right away, before the group ever sets foot in Atlas, the show is sending us a warning: this is not right. This continues in Volume 7's first episode, which throws sign after sign that something is wrong in Atlas at us. Weiss mentions almost immediately that she's "never seen [Atlas's] forces deployed so aggressively before. If we land in a stolen ship, there's no way the security team will let us anywhere near Ironwood. They might even take [Weiss] back to [her] father." Weiss, the native Atlesian, the one who knows this Kingdom the best, tells Maria to put some distance between them and the fleet. Maria, who is also familiar with Atlas because that's where she got her cybernetic eyes, agrees without hesitation. Every character here that knows anything about Atlas except for possibly Blake has made it clear that something is wrong, that this situation makes them nervous... and then once the group descends to Mantle, the show starts absolutely bombarding us with evidence that the group was right to be wary.

As soon as we reach Mantle, Ironwood hits us with a propaganda broadcast with some serious 1984 vibes. Ruby and Yang are clearly worried by this and point out that Ironwood looks tired. Qrow questions what Ironwood's been doing. By this point, the group is visibly concerned about Ironwood's leadership of his Kingdom, and justifiably so. The fleet is deployed in unusual fashion, something is specifically up with Ironwood, and multiple characters familiar with how Atlas normally operates have raised concerns about their first impressions.

Then we touch down in Mantle and see android soldiers in the streets. The civilians aren't happy about this, as the below exchange demonstrates:

Civilian 1: Ugh, not these again.

Civilian 2: Why can't they just leave us be?

In this same scene, we also see Mantas deployed directly over Mantle (where they can't intercept threats before they reach the city, but can conveniently remind the people of Mantle how powerful Atlas is. Don't worry, General Ironwood will protect you... until you step out of line) and a pair of children throwing rocks at a surveillance drone. Our first impression is that the people are... less than enamored with their Kingdom's military. None of the people we see, none of them, act like the presence of Atlesian forces is in any way reassuring.

Weiss agrees. In her words, "this isn't right. None of this is right," (Volume 7, Episode 1). Again, Weiss is the person who grew up in this Kingdom. She lived in Atlas for 17 years. If any member of the group knows what the Kingdom is "supposed" to be like, it's her.

Yang proposes that they ditch the ship, and Qrow (who, again, has worked with Ironwood for years and is a generally well-traveled Huntsman who knows what Atlas was like prior to the Fall of Beacon), agrees. According to Qrow, they need to "get lost in Mantle and buy [themselves] some time" (Volume 7, Episode 1). He's worried about what's going on too, and is advocating for scouting out the situation before making any major decisions.

Weiss still has faith in Winter, right up until Winter decides to join Ironwood in the propaganda broadcast studio. The very first thing she says is this: "Failure to cooperate with Atlas military personnel is a punishable offense. If your sector is under lockdown…" (Volume 7, Episode 1).

That's it. That's the part of the broadcast that we get to hear. There's no attempt at reassurance. There's no attempt to spread unity or convince the people of Mantle that they'll be safe. There is only "comply or you will be punished", which is very part and parcel of Winter's leadership style overall, but that's probably the subject of another post in and of itself. The message Mantle is getting from Winter, and by extension Atlas, in this broadcast is simple: "do as you're told, or I will hurt you".

I'm not 100% sure what Winter means when she mentions sectors of the city being under lockdown, because that's never actually explored as far as I can recall, but just by reading the text and considering the context, we can tell that Atlas is exerting some form of direct, repressive military and/or governmental authority over specific parts of Mantle for whatever reason.

Next up comes this little exchange:

Qrow: No offense, Weiss. I'm not sure that's a good idea anymore.

Weiss: There's obviously something very wrong. If we can just talk to her, then we--

Qrow: Look, I'm not even sure we should be talking to Ironwood until we know exactly what's going on with Mantle.

At this point, Qrow is deeply concerned. He's the most experienced member of the group, the one who's traveled all across Remnant, and the one who knows Ironwood the best, and he says maybe they shouldn't even be talking to Ironwood. Weiss reiterates that something is very wrong in the Kingdom. Again, these are the two who have the best idea of what Atlas is supposed to be like under normal circumstances. I know I keep belaboring that point, but I literally saw a post on r/rwbycritics yesterday that insisted that the group had "no real reason" for mistrusting Ironwood and another one that argued that the Yellow Trailer was bad because Junior and the Malachite twins weren't as important to the plot as Adam, so I kind of have to beat the audience over the head with my points to make sure they get through to the lowest common critical denominator.

For the record, it's Qrow who's making the initial choice to not trust Ironwood, not Team RWBY, even though they're the ones who get all the blame for it. Qrow is the one who says they need to get lost in Mantle to buy time to figure out what's going on, and he's also the one to flat-out raise the possibility that maybe Ironwood shouldn't be trusted at all. The others are wary, but Weiss focuses on contacting Winter, and the rest of the group hasn't taken a particularly strong stance at this point.

As Maria leads the protagonists through the street, we get some interesting background details that are easy to miss on first watch (I certainly did). There are Atlesian Knights stationed throughout the streets, and we see the following headlines on a news board:

"Missing Journalist Found Slain"

"Election Imminent Mantle Hometown Hero vs Atlesian Tycoon"

"Embargo: The Right Call? Pressure and Criticism Continues to Mount on Council"

"Outer Wall Damaged Resources Stalled"

This tells us right here that the people are not happy with their government, that someone is killing members of the press, that there's an election coming up that will be important later, and that the city of Mantle is vulnerable and not getting the resources it needs to shore up its defenses. Honestly, I don't blame anyone for missing this, because it's very easy to overlook unless you're specifically paying attention to the details, but it provides important context regarding the situation in Mantle.

Jaune notices the increased military presence too:

Jaune: Is this many soldiers normal?

Weiss: No. At least, I didn't think so.

Again, the show (via Weiss) is making it as clear as possible that Something Is Wrong in Mantle.

Next up, Yang gets her picture taken by a surveillance drone, because getting up in your citizens' faces and taking their pictures without their consent is the sign of a free and open society, and we continue moving through the city, noting as we do that the propaganda reels are still broadcasting. The other members of the group start voicing their opinions at this point.

Maria: You have to remember, the Kingdom had just lost the Great War. The people of Mantle needed a sign of a brighter future, and that sign was Atlas. After all, a home in the clouds is as bright as it gets.

Nora: Unless you're the one having to look up at it.

Blake: This whole city, it just seems awful.

While Maria's talking about a city in the sky, the people on the ground see trucks moving through the streets, carrying dirty, disheveled, dispirited miners in their beds. Maria's words bring to mind the aesthetics of Mantle in comparison to the bright city in the sky: dirty, grungy, polluted, industrial, miserable. Mantle is very gray, very dark, very brown, unlike the clean, white, light blue, futuristic Atlas. Blake and Nora are unimpressed with the ideal, given that they're looking around them at the people it left behind.

After a brief altercation with a pair of drunks, who, once again, make the point that Mantle is not in a great spot right now, and also racist, we arrive at Pietro's pharmacy. The pharmacy, like everything else in Mantle, is not in great repair, as Yang points out. Pietro starts giving the protagonists the lowdown on Ironwood, establishing both that the Fall of Beacon changed Ironwood, made him paranoid, and that the Council is so scared it'll agree to anything he wants. Taken together, this is not a good sign: one paranoid man who has already been established as prone to solving problems with military force is in control of a Kingdom and the checks and balances that would normally restrain him are not functioning as intended.

An alarm interrupts the conversation, and we follow Team RWBY and company outside, where Oscar observes that "the city defenses aren't doing much", which Nora says "doesn't surprise [her]" (Volume 7, Episode 1). We see a group of Sabyrs attack a squad of Knights, taking them apart without any sign of difficulty, because Atlas's hardware is consistently garbage and its doctrine is consistently stupid. The same pack of Grimm gets dismantled by the heroes and then Penny, but our touching reunion is cut short when another alarm goes off elsewhere in the city and Penny flies off to deal with that.

Meanwhile, the group makes the mistake of relaxing and immediately gets jumped by the Ace-Ops, who were conspicuously absent when people were actually in danger, but are absolutely on top of things when arresting people who did something useful. Keep in mind that during this arrest, the Ace-Ops ambushed the protagonists without so much as a warning or a request to stand down. As a result, the protagonists have no clue what the hell is happening. Oscar asks "What's going on?!" (Volume 7, Episode 1), while Qrow points out that he's "a licensed Huntsman! Just helped save everyone?" (Volume 7, Episode 1). Pietro wonders what the Ace-Ops are "even doing down here in Mantle" (Volume 7, Episode 1), to which Clover responds that they "heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing, followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by unlicensed Huntsmen" (Volume 7, Episode 1).

Let's go over what this sequence of events tells us about Atlas and its attitude towards Mantle, shall we? First, Grimm attacks in Mantle are so frequent that they happen twice within a few minutes of screentime, and the city's defenses are such a joke that a pack of Sabyrs can penetrate deep enough into the city to reach an area that took the group several in-universe minutes to walk to. The Atlesian Knights are so useless at their stated job that they get stomped by basic mook Grimm so weak that fucking Jaune kills two of them with minimal effort, but hey, at least they're good at reminding the citizens of Mantle who's really in charge. The Mantas and battleships deployed above Mantle do not take part in the engagement in any way and make no effort to prevent the Sabyrs from reaching the city to begin with. What they do accomplish, if they accomplish anything at all, is intimidating the populace.

According to Forest (the protestor in Volume 7, Episode 2), the Ace-Ops are "the elite-of-elite military Huntsmen and Ironwood's personal attack dogs" (Volume 7, Episode 2), and having an encounter with them means "Ironwood must really have a bone to pick with [the protagonists]" (Volume 7, Episode 2). Despite this, despite their status as elite Huntsmen, the Ace-Ops do not engage the invading Grimm at any point on screen during this sequence of events, but they are right there to capture the people who actually do the moment the threat is gone. Again, these Huntsmen are not keeping Mantle safe, and usually aren't even there to defend a city under regular threat from the Grimm. They are, however, able to locate and apprehend the protagonist group with little difficulty, which tells us a lot about where Ironwood's priorities are.

The "use of unauthorized weaponry" thing is also very telling to me, because this is a world where humanity lives under a constant existential threat and thus the ability to own a weapon and defend oneself from the Grimm seems like something people on Remnant should be fundamentally entitled to, but evidently not in Atlas. Nope, in this Kingdom, you need government permission to protect yourself from giant monsters that want to eat your face. Maybe it's because I live in Texas, where gun culture is pervasive, but this restriction definitely feels... off... to me. Remnant isn't the real world, where I fully support stricter gun control, because in the real world I'm not likely to be eaten by a Hulked out grizzly bear while walking from the bus stop to my office while the cops who are supposed to stop it from ripping my head off are too busy arresting the guy who shot it before it could kill me for not having a concealed carry permit. It makes sense for people to be armed in Remnant in a way that isn't necessary in the real world because the people of Remnant face real and pervasive threats that don't exist in reality, and Atlas arresting the protagonists for having weapons is a sign of executive overreach if that's truly the driving force behind their arrest, rather than the unauthorized airship landing in Mantle. Whether it is or not, it's still presented as part of the justification, which means the problems I mentioned still apply.

In fairness to Ironwood's supporters, the show goes to great lengths to present him as an ally, a good guy, despite all the red flags he's been throwing up since his very first appearance. A key accomplishment of the writing, necessary for the ultimate resolution of Volume 7, is making it seem like Ironwood is doing his best to do the right thing, that all the problems we've seen are temporary rather than systemic, that the initial bad impressions were the result of a miscommunication rather than a fundamental ideological opposition.

Let's go back for a bit, all the way to Volumes 2 and 3, where Ironwood demonstrates that his solution to everything is military force. We see him wrest control of the Vytal Festival's security away from Ozpin by going behind his back, but Ironwood's conviction regarding his own rectitude is set against Ozpin's negligence, his failure to anticipate the threat and respond appropriately. One does too much, the other does too little, and neither is 100% in the right.

In Volume 3, when Ironwood's equipment is compromised, we see him personally protect the students and civilians evacuating from the Amity Colosseum, attempt to retake his flagship, and then fight on the front lines in Vale. Yes, Cinder exploited his mistakes and attitudes and blind spots to cause the current crisis, the narrative says, but look at him! He's fighting bravely to protect the vulnerable! Qrow says he knows Ironwood would never deliberately do something like this! He's a good guy!

Once we get to Volume 4, we're already getting hints of where Ironwood's paranoia and authoritarian tendencies will lead him. Jacques calls him out on his embargo and points out that Ironwood is a friend with whom he has a close working relationship, thus tying Ironwood to the bad things the SDC does, but we're encouraged to ignore that because it's being directed at a heroic character by a villain who we already know abuses one of the four main protagonists. Like, at this point in the story, we're obviously going to pick Ironwood over Jacques, given that Jacques is the villain of Weiss's Volume 4 storyline and Klein and Ironwood are her main allies. It's very easy to overlook the implications of Ironwood's behavior when the thing in the forefront of our minds is "get Weiss away from her abuser".

In Volume 6, Cordovin gives us a glimpse of the arrogance that characterizes Atlesian society, but before we have the chance to cement the hypothesis that it's endemic to the Atlesian military, Maria defuses it by proposing that Cordovin holds her post because Atlas wants to get rid of her. This changes the story's presentation of Cordovin's attitude: instead of her views being pervasive, Cordovin's just a prick that even the other Atlesians can't stand, especially when contrasted with the warmer and more generous Ironwood. Ultimately, Cordovin proves to be courageous and heroic and not so bad after all in the Volume 6 finale, when she finishes off the Leviathan and goes against protocol to let the heroes travel to Atlas. It makes Atlas seem like a Kingdom that's a bit blunt and arrogant and hidebound, but ultimately well-meaning and leaves us inclined to give Atlas the benefit of the doubt once the story takes us there.

Let's head back to Volume 7 proper, because the story continues showing us the warning signs and then sweeping them under the rug by providing harmless alternative explanations for them before we even meet Ironwood. When Forest is in the police airship, he introduces the Happy Huntresses and their fight for better conditions in Mantle, their attempts to mitigate the damage done by the class divide and exacerbated by Ironwood's policies, but then the soldiers flying the aircraft point out that what he actually did was throw a brick at their ship. This changes our perspective of Forest from someone unjustly arrested for fighting back against a tyrannical government to a bonehead who is justifiably being punished for attempting to damage government property. It's no accident that the show does this, reframes the Atlas/Mantle conflict, right before we see Ironwood.

Once we actually arrive at Atlas Academy, the writing immediately humanizes Ironwood, and by extension Atlas as a whole: Winter insists that the cuffs be removed, Ironwood apologizes for their initial arrest, and Yang is really the only one who bothers trying to hold Atlas accountable for it, because Yang's tolerance for bullshit from sketchy authority figures is the lowest of the main group's at this point. Ironwood just kind of laughs off the group's theft of an airship (Winter is less inclined to do so, but she still frames her concern in terms of Weiss's physical safety more than anything else), he returns the Relic of Knowledge, and he brings them into his inner circle. Ironwood has demonstrably reached out to trust others with his secret knowledge (Winter, Penny, the Ace-Ops) and has even acknowledged that the group is justified in thinking he's not very trustworthy right now*. He tells them his plan, agrees with the group's assessment of the negative impacts of his actions, and then reveals new information that offers a justification for his policies and promises to defend all of Remnant. It's meant to convince the viewer that he's a well-meaning leader making difficult choices that create temporary hardship while he works toward a permanent solution and hide the way that Atlas fundamentally doesn't give a shit about Mantle or its struggles. Judging by the reaction of certain segments of the fanbase, it, uh... worked.

*As an aside, I always find it funny when people act like not trusting Ironwood is some kind of horrific sin, like Team RWBY should have accepted his authority unquestioningly, when even the man himself admits that he can see why they wouldn't, but whatever.

The narrative continues trying to convince us that ha ha, this was just a wacky misunderstanding, when the Ace-Ops get properly introduced and immediately rush to apologize. Suddenly, they're cute and funny and sincere rather than threatening, gushing over the protagonists and participating in the same type of slapstick comedy as the other heroic characters. The Ace-Ops become mentors over the next few episodes, rather than antagonists, alternately supporting and lightly hazing the protagonists while training them and working with them on routine Huntsman missions or the Amity project. The training montage shows the kids growing closer to the Ace-Ops, and it's clear by the end of the Volume that both groups genuinely care about one another, otherwise their ultimate opposition wouldn't have cut everyone involved so deeply.

The narrative continues building Ironwood up as likeable and well-meaning throughout the next few episodes. When Jaune calls Ironwood out on his treatment of Mantle in Pomp and Circumstance, Ironwood accepts it without argument and even agrees, even when Jaune's worried about the response - "No. No, you're right. Things in Mantle have been... hard to manage lately. I'm not blind to its issues. In fact, that's what I want to talk to you about" (Volume 7, Episode 4). He gives the group their licenses two years early, he acknowledges their concerns and encourages them to take missions to help Mantle, and he's set up in opposition to established villain Jacques Schnee. He even gives an awkward speech that makes him seem a little goofy, and Penny points out that as awkward as it is, it's still an improvement over previous attempts. At this point, the narrative is just screaming that we should be rooting for Ironwood.

Even so, there are a lot of details in the background that tell us that yeah, those red flags we were worried about in The Greatest Kingdom are still there. They didn't go away. Watts mentions that "while cybersecurity has been stepped up in Atlas, as usual, none of the code was updated in Mantle," (Volume 7, Episode 2), while Tyrian calls Mantle "a city with a thousand eyes" (Volume 7, Episode 2) and we see security cameras all around the city. The infrastructure functions well enough to let Atlas keep tabs on Mantle, but nobody's put any effort into protecting that same infrastructure from cyberattacks... even though Atlas was deemed worthy of that effort. Once again, the point of Atlas's so-called defenses is controlling Mantle, rather than protecting it.

On top of that, Atlesian law apparently gives the military the right to commandeer private property. Jacques complains about Ironwood taking over the mine the protagonists clear out in Ace Operatives. Ironwood responds that since the mine is "now the site of a classified military operation, it didn't even require a vote" (Volume 7, Episode 3), a fact that shocks Jacques. This is... a pretty significant application of government power, especially for someone like me, who's used to thinking of things in terms of American government and the powers therein. While the United States government can take private land for public purposes through the process of eminent domain, it must compensate the landowner fairly for the land claimed in this fashion. Jacques was not compensated, and, as far as I can tell, may not have even been formally notified by the government, nor do there appear to be any checks on the military's ability to seize property as long as that seizure can be justified under the "classified operation" umbrella, but the narrative doesn't really give us much time to dwell on that. Instead, it focuses on Jacques's confrontation with Weiss and Ironwood and Team RWBY standing up for her. Once again, the story near-instantly deflects our attention away from the ugly truths behind Atlas's pretty mask.

This is freaking dangerous, honestly. In Atlas, it seems that your property can be confiscated at any time, with no warning or compensation, as long as the military can provide the flimsiest of justifications. Sure, taking the mine had a legitimate purpose, but what's stopping someone with Ironwood's power and authority from just taking other property to harm or punish a rival or dissenter? The middle of Volume 7 makes a big deal about the military's lack of oversight, but I'll get into that later.

Even the missions the protagonists go on reveal cracks in the foundations. Marrow makes fun of the parents down in Mantle for wanting Huntsmen to escort the kids to school, claiming that there's "not actually any danger, but the parents fret, and that attracts Grimm" (Volume 7, Episode 4), but frankly, from what we saw in The Greatest Kingdom, those parents are right to be afraid. Grimm routinely penetrate deep into the city, both through the streets and through other paths, as Elm asks for volunteers to flush a "massive Sabyr" (Volume 7, Episode 4) out of the sewers. If I had a kid in pre-primary school, which I'm assuming is equivalent to preschool in the US based on the appearance of the children Jaune escorts, I'd sure as hell want to make sure they didn't get eaten on the way too!

The decision not to trust Ironwood is controversial even in-universe, and the group discusses it in the third and fourth episodes of the Volume:

Blake: I suddenly don't feel as bad about leaving Oscar behind.

Yang: Can we talk about that again?

Ruby: What about it?

Yang: We're really not gonna tell Ironwood about what happened to Oz? What we learned about Jinn? About Salem?

Ruby: We are. We will. But you saw how things looked when we flew into Atlas.

Blake: The General's heart seems to be in the right place, but that doesn't mean we should trust him yet.

Weiss: We need to play along for a while before we make any major decisions.

Yang: Okay. How did Oscar feel about that?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby: Er, probably shouldn't keep running around with an ancient Relic on a keychain… you know?

Oscar: But--

Ruby: I know you'll keep it safe in Atlas.

Oscar: Ruby, hiding things from Ironwood, doesn't that feel like what Ozpin did to us?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qrow: Big day for you, huh, kiddo?

Ruby: It's… definitely a lot to take in.

Qrow: Which part? The finally getting to Atlas part, getting your license part, or the not quite disclosing everything to Ironwood part? Or… all of the above?

Ruby: All of the above. I'm trying to do what I think is best, but I really can't tell if what's best is what's right, or if I'm no different from Oz.

Qrow: Ruby, Oz only trusted himself with the whole truth. You're trusting others, but you're making sure they prove themselves first. I think that's a pretty big difference.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's clear from these conversations that nobody's really happy about lying to Ironwood. Yang's detractors love to call her a hypocrite for supporting the decision to lie to Ironwood, but she's the first one to raise concerns about it, despite all the valid reasons for the choice, and Ruby reassures her that they will tell Ironwood eventually. Funnily enough, Yang gets so much flak for following Ruby's lead here, but she also gets bagged on for not obeying Ironwood's authority unquestioningly later on in the Volume. I wonder what the difference is here. I really do.

Ruby emphasizes the fact that she doesn't know if this is the right choice, and multiple characters actively draw a parallel between her actions and Ozpin's. The key difference here, as Qrow points out, is that Ruby intends to grant Ironwood full disclosure later on, once she's sure he'll be able to handle the news, whereas Ozpin would've kept his secrets until the end of time, and did play his cards as close to the chest as he could until Ruby used one of Jinn's questions to learn what he was hiding. Ruby does ultimately come clean, trusting Ironwood at the same time as he chooses to trust Robyn and Atlas's Council, so she's not just maliciously deceiving Ironwood the way some people like to claim.

Even later, when Yang and Blake tell Robyn about the Amity project, the divide remains. Here's the conversation where Blake and Yang discuss telling Ironwood:

Yang: Do you… Do you think we should've told Ironwood about Salem, before he put so much on the line for Amity?

Blake: Sounds like you do.

Yang: I trust Ruby, but I think he deserves to know what he's stepping into. We all did.

Yang: You don't agree.

Blake: Look around. The embargo, the military presence, the restrictions on assembly. He's a bit prone to overreacting.

Yang: Yeah, hard to argue with that. Still, he didn't have a lot of good options.

Blake: I'm not sure there are many good options left for any of us anymore. Keeping secrets, taking lives? It makes you wonder how far we're gonna have to go to keep doing the right thing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yang, "the self-righteous hypocrite", remains consistent in her characterization: being upset about lies and lying, about hiding the truth and having it hidden, has been a thing for her since like Volume fucking 2, but people who pay no attention to anything act like this came out of nowhere. Yang's big conflict with Ozpin is about how she feels like she and her friends were manipulated into joining the battle against Salem without ever being told enough to make informed choices, so it's no wonder she's upset about leaving Ironwood in the dark: it's exactly what happened to her!

Blake, meanwhile, spells out exactly why not trusting Ironwood is eminently justifiable. I really don't know how much harder the narrative can hit the audience over the head with this theme, but evidently it needed to find a way to do it harder.

Something really interesting to me is the way the group splits between favoring Ruby's choice and protesting it. The ones who agree with not trusting Ironwood the most have all been in abusive situations: Blake was in a relationship with Adam, Weiss has an abusive father, Nora's mother literally abandoned her to the Grimm, and Qrow was treated like shit by the Branwen Tribe. By contrast, Yang and Ruby had a more normal home life (Taiyang's temporary struggles after Summer's disappearance notwithstanding) and the show hasn't provided any evidence of either of them having romantic relationships of any kind prior to the series, much less abusive ones, while Ren's parents clearly loved him and nothing about the limited details provided regarding Oscar's living situation implies that he was abused in any way. We see Ironwood grow increasingly abusive throughout his decline in Volume 8, and Winter, another person raised in an abusive household, responds to his behavior with the same ingrained reactions she would have used to protect Weiss from Jacques when he tries to shoot Marrow. She's also absolutely freaking terrified when Harriet rats her out. Taken together, I think this is a deliberate choice from the writers. I think the characters who have experienced abuse saw something about Ironwood that made them wary.

So by this point most of the audience is now firmly on Ironwood's side. He's managed to overcome the initial bad impression, despite those niggling little details, so now the narrative introduces sympathetic opposition in the form of Robyn Hill. We've heard of her before, but we don't get to actually meet her until Sparks, when she holds up the truck that Ruby, Penny, Qrow, and Clover are escorting on a supply run. The transcript of their conversation is below:

Ruby: Uh, Uncle Qrow.

Qrow: What's going on? Grimm?

Clover: No. Worse. You two with me. Penny, stay put and keep an eye on our six. We may need an element of surprise.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting start to the conversation here. Clover considers Robyn worse than the Grimm and is worried that their encounter might come to blows. This suggests that Robyn is living up to her inspiration and protecting the downtrodden by violent means if necessary and that Clover views her as a more significant threat than your average Grimm or bandit, despite the fact that she's running for a Council seat specifically to better Mantle's lot.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Penny: Affirmative. I will plan for six possible outcomes.

Robyn: Alright ladies, time to show them our teeth.

Clover: Robyn! Well, if it isn't Mantle's home town hero. Is there a reason you're blocking an official military transport?

Robyn: Clover, I'm so glad you're here. Maybe you can help me understand why this truck that's supposed to be taking construction materials to fix Mantle's outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere? Are you lost?

Clover: It's pretty easy to get turned around out here in the tundra, everything looks the same. Thanks for checking up on us though. We'll be on our way now.

Robyn: I was hoping you'd play it straight with me. What's Ironwood doing with Amity at the old SDC mine?

Clover: Oh, that. Just giving her an annual checkup.

Robyn: The next Vytal Festival isn't anytime soon. Only automated drones and a few select Atlas scientists are allowed out here. And Amity's getting invaluable resources we need in Mantle to protect against Grimm. Seems like more than just a check-up.

Clover: You've been scoping it out.

Robyn: We can't fix the wall without the supplies on these trucks. I think Mantle deserves to know what they're being used for. It doesn't have to be difficult. Just tell me.

Clover: I'm going to have to pass on that.

Robyn: How 'bout you, pipsqueak? Five o' clock shadow? Either of you want to tell me why Mantle's being put at risk for Ironwood's pet project?

Ruby: We're trying to help Mantle. We need--

Clover: That's enough Robyn. As a potential Councilwoman, you should probably focus on the election instead of harassing Huntsmen. Now, it's time to let us pass.

Robyn: I think you've misjudged the situation. One way or another, these supplies are going to get where they're supposed to go - Mantle.

Clover: Then I suggest you do that through the proper legal channels as a Councilwoman. If you get elected.

Robyn: Now where's the fun in that?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This conversation tells us a lot about Robyn's operational patterns, and they remain consistent throughout both Volumes 7 and 8. First, she initiates dialogue. She gives Clover a chance to just tell her the truth, hoping he'll meet her halfway. When he doesn't, she asks some more pointed questions, hoping to convince him to come clean once he realizes she knows more then he thinks. Clover stonewalls her again, and she starts applying a bit of pressure. By this point in the conversation, she isn't even trying to convince him to hand over the supplies. She's just asking what they're being used for. My reading of this scene is that if Clover had given her a genuine answer, if Clover had taken her hand and told her that yeah, there's a real strategic reason supplies are being diverted from Mantle, she would have accepted it, backed off, and focused on the election... but he doesn't, so now that it's clear that Clover is not going to address her concerns, she moves to force as a last resort. Robyn even reaches out to Ruby and Qrow, trying to get them to offer her an explanation, before deciding that she's going to take the supplies that Mantle desperately needs by force.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Penny: Robyn Hill. I would like to politely ask that you call off the Huntresses approaching the rear of the truck.

Robyn: Alright. Joanna, May!

Robyn: The Protector of Mantle, huh?

Penny: Let us through, please.

Clover: Robyn. Good luck at the election.

Qrow: That was a close one.

Clover: You're telling me.

Fiona: What now?

Robyn: I want to know why Amity Colosseum is suddenly so important. Whatever it takes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robyn backs down once Penny reveals herself, though I'm not sure if that's because she thinks the odds are against her or because of either the genuine moral conflict or simply the optics of forcing a confrontation with the official Protector of Mantle. Either way, she's still focusing on why Amity Colosseum is a priority, rather than getting the supplies for Mantle no matter what, which implies to me that Robyn is still willing to accept a valid explanation for the Amity project. She's still trying to solve things diplomatically. She's trying to help Mantle and incurring real personal risk in doing so. Contrast her with Jacques, who's only concerned with his personal wealth and is spewing cringeworthy platitudes about how his family "has been weathering the same storm as many of you" (Volume 7, Episode 5), which goes over great with the miners slaving away for his company. We get some interesting headlines during his press conference, which I have transcribed below:

"Missing Journalist Found Slain In Her Midtown Apartment"

"Perimeter Wall Damaged Last Month - Resources and Funding Are Stalled"

"Surface Level Grimm Attacks Increasing - Mantle Protection Agency Advises Staying Indoors"

"Weather Special - How to Keep You and Your Family Safe From Hypothermia and Frostbite"

Ironwood's opponents are still being killed. Mantle's defenses are still crap, and no one in power has bothered changing that. Grimm attacks are increasing, to no one's surprise. The Solitas cold is still dangerous. We're pretty well-insulated with our viewpoint characters up in Atlas, but the show is quietly reminding us that it's not all sunshine and rainbows down in Mantle.

Jacques closes down his facilities and lays off workers, starting a riot, and the next episode opens up with those same rioters arrested and cuffed. Once again, the soldiers aren't doing much to stop the frequent Grimm attacks, but when it comes to turning force against Mantle's populace, there are plenty of troops available. Despite all this, Robyn is still trying to solve things diplomatically. She's not condoning the rioting, even though Mantle is "being denied aid for the hardships [it's] already had to go through" (Volume 7, Episode 6), and asks that her supporters "show [their anger] not in the streets but at the polls today" (Volume 6, Episode 7). Sure, part of this is probably because she thinks she's going to win the Council seat, but she is trying very hard to keep lines of communication open and encourage peaceful solutions as long as doing so is tenable.

After the riot, Nora mentions that Mantle is, y'know, still a problem. Ironwood kind of acknowledges this, but he doesn't actually take steps to solve that problem, which is becoming a common theme with him at this point: someone points out that his policies are hurting Mantle, he agrees and expresses regret for the necessity, he promises that the strain is only temporary, and then he never actually does anything about it. He puts the burden on Robyn to be open to working together when he says "it will only work if she's open too" (Volume 7, Episode 6). Fortunately for Ironwood, the audience is still on his side at this point. We've seen that he's trying, we've seen that Robyn is willing to reach out when she tries to get Clover to give her something, anything, out on the tundra, so we have hope that things will get better, even though we know as viewers that things need to go to shit to progress the narrative... which they do, at the rally, where we see that there are surveillance drones present and not even bothering to not be invasive. Damn things would probably try to follow you into the bathroom if they got the chance. Atlas is always watching you, folks, but it's not to keep you safe...

Post-massacre, Ironwood starts really clamping down. We start the episode off with a measure that should freak the absolute hell out of American viewers specifically, transcribed below:

Ironwood: Citizens of Mantle - Following the most recent Grimm attack, a temporary prohibition of assembly is in place.

Ironwood: There are to be no public gatherings of any kind. Please conduct your business and return to your homes before curfew.

Ironwood: This is for your own safety.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ironwood has denied the people of Mantle the right to assemble. Here's why I said it should send up massive red flags for American viewers: assembly is a right explicitly granted in the Bill of Rights, the first ten formal amendments to the United States Constitution. It's part of the First Amendment, as a matter of fact. Here is the text of the amendment for anyone not familiar with it: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

"Congress shall make no law... abridging... the right of the people peaceably to assemble". That's the important part here. While Atlas is not real-world America (it's based partly on America, but is not a 1-to-1 representation), RWBY is made by an American company for a primarily American audience, and I sincerely doubt the writers are unaware of the implications of showing a government infringing upon rights that damn near every American old enough to have taken a government/history class is well aware of. This was a deliberate choice, it has to be, and it shows very clearly that Ironwood is less concerned with protecting Mantle and more concerned with controlling it. Oh, he couches it in terms of protection, but the populace of Mantle doesn't seem to agree with him. The citizens hide and flee from the soldiers, rather than looking toward them for safety and reassurance. Children on the street hide from surveillance drones. And Robyn Hill has finally resorted to violence.

Robyn has no options left. She tried to do things the right way. She tried to do things legally. She tried to work with the people in power. And none of that got her a damn thing. Jacques Schnee is sitting on the Council, and she knows he won't help Mantle. Ironwood won't help Mantle. Councilors Sleet and Camilla won't help Mantle. Three of the four Councilors have neglected Mantle for months at minimum, more likely years. The other one is Jacques Schnee. Robyn is the only one who will do a damn thing for Mantle at this point, and if that means taking on the might of Atlas, so be it.

This leads into the most significant line of dialogue in this entire mid-Volume election storyline: "I want Robyn Hill in custody" (Volume 7, Episode 7). I'll get to the implications of that in a moment, but first I'd like to discuss the way the narrative brings up martial law. I've seen people go after Winter for saying this, and I can sort of get why, but I think blaming her for it ignores the context of the scene. First, Ironwood is literally the highest military authority in the Kingdom and a control freak on top of that. The idea of declaring martial law is not something likely to ever be far from his mind. Winter's answering a direct question by bringing up an alternative that her boss is hardly likely to be ignorant of, and I don't think she's advocating it here. If she was, she would've encouraged it in private, not brought it up in front of the only group of people that has actually consistently gotten Ironwood to back down, that she knows will protest any measure of this nature. I think Winter's raising the possibility of martial law because she doesn't want it placed in effect, because she hopes the protagonists can get through to Ironwood again and moderate his more dangerous tendencies.

It works, kind of. Nora calls Ironwood out. It's a confrontation that's been building since the start of the Volume, and while I really think Nora's stance on Mantle should've gone to Blake, who got absolutely jack shit to do in a story arc where she should've been front and center next to Weiss, it's still the first big moment where the show says "okay, yeah, Ironwood's at serious risk of going from the well-meaning good guy we saw in early Volume 7 to an outright danger to the people he thinks he's protecting". Here's the transcript:

Nora: You're not actually considering that, are you?

Ironwood: What's more important? Establishing communications, unite the world? Or appeasing a few city blocks?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ironwood reduces Mantle to "a few city blocks", rather than a city full of living, breathing people that is the main reason Atlas is even possible. The mask is starting to come off. It's getting harder and harder to deny that Atlas only really views Mantle as something to exploit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nora: Don't make it sound trivial when you know it isn't. You keep talking about how we just need a little more time, but you're not the one having to struggle.

Ironwood: We have all had to make sacrifices for the greater good. Mantle has had to bear a lot of the burden, yes, but--

Nora: They're bearing all of it! The longer this waiting game goes on, the harder each day gets for people down there and now you wanna send in more soldiers? You can't just force people to fall in line. If you do that, you'll just be trading all of these problems for the Grimm!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you, Nora. Mantle is the one suffering. What sacrifices has Atlas made? Who in Atlas is living in fear of constant Grimm attacks? Who in Atlas is losing their jobs? Who in Atlas has been stripped of essential rights, denied at gunpoint? Sure, soldiers have died clearing out Grimm (at the hands of the Geist that hunkered down in the mine, if nothing else), but that pales in comparison to the way Mantle's civilians don't even have a fucking functional wall to keep the Grimm out. Ironwood sacrificed his damn reputation. He sacrificed public opinion. Meanwhile, people in Mantle don't know if they'll survive the trip to work, or if they'll even have a job when they get there.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby: Please, General Ironwood. Squeezing Mantle this way… That kind of division plays right into Salem's hands.

Ruby: That's why Tyrian is here framing you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruby's right. Salem's plan specifically hinges upon exploiting Ironwood's character flaws, particularly his stubborn insistence on doing everything himself, in the way he thinks best. Tyrian states that "if General Ironwood comes to his senses and calls upon aid from Vacuo, all may be lost for us" (Volume 6, Episode 9). Salem is deliberately targeting Ironwood, and he's falling right into her trap by fostering division and unrest instead of unity.

Anyway, the reason all this came up in the first place was because of Robyn. According to Ironwood, "Robyn has emboldened our suppliers in Mantle. They're refusing to sell us provisions until the city is adequately repaired. With Robyn redistributing the goods her team has stolen, the Amity Project is completely stalled" (Volume 7, Episode 7). This line is why the insistence that Robyn accomplished nothing by stealing the supplies has always baffled me. Ironwood literally says that Robyn's actions have given Mantle enough of a backbone to stand up to Ironwood and Atlas and enough teeth to make Atlas take its defiance seriously. The connection, to me, was always pretty clear: Robyn takes supplies, Mantle isn't completely and utterly dependent on Atlas and now has leverage to demand better treatment, Mantle demands better treatment. Robyn's vigilante justice got results. r/rwbycritics really likes to whine about how the supplies Atlas needs for the communication tower aren't the same as the supplies Mantle needs to repair the wall, but this absolutely galaxy-brained take ignores the way that the narrative repeatedly points out that the supplies for the Amity Project are being diverted from Mantle (Sparks, Worst Case Scenario) and that the communications tower requires construction materials that have a wide variety of industrial uses (steel, concrete, etc.) in addition to highly specialized parts and equipment. It's not really a stretch to assume that building materials for the structure of a tower could also be used to repair the damn wall, but I guess it's easier to crap on Robyn for defying Ironwood's policies, which the narrative has explicitly pointed out are harmful to Mantle, than think for two seconds.

Now we get to the elephant in the room: "I want Robyn Hill in custody." In custody. That's what he says. Not "under arrest". Not "stopped". Not "brought to trial". In custody. Ironwood wants Robyn under his control, he wants her removed as a threat, and he doesn't give a damn about the law or her rights to get it.

I don't blame anyone for not realizing the implications of his phrasing right away. I certainly didn't. I needed a tumblr post I saw a while back to point it out, just the same way I'm going to now. The key to understanding why Ironwood's words are so insidious comes in the next episode, when Jacques Schnee casually invites her to his victory bash. Robyn shows up alone, with no backup, and none of the Council members except for Ironwood have a problem with it. Ironwood makes no attempt to arrest her, even though she's alone and he has both his personal goon squad and the apprentice goon squad all within 100 feet of him. Robyn, a trained Huntress, walks into a room with three Councilors, none of whom have any training or possibly even Aura, and none of the three bat an eye. They don't see her as a threat.

How is this possible when Ironwood was trying to apprehend her last episode, you may ask? Simple: he never got a warrant. He never tried to formally arrest her. He sent a team of Navy SEALs if Navy SEALs were also cops to black bag her off the street. This was a black operation, so highly classified that Atlas's highest civilian authorities didn't even know about it. Ironwood tried to kidnap his opposition in the middle of the night. There was no warrant. There was no trial. He never formally charged her with a crime. He didn't inform civilian authorities that he was issuing orders to arrest Robyn. He just sent his squad to grab her with no oversight, no accountability, and no concern for due process or the rights of the accused. Between this and the confiscation of the SDC mine for the Amity project, it's obvious that the Atlesian military regularly engages in classified operations without bothering to brief civilian authorities, which is a major red flag because civilian control of the military is meant to reduce the risk of a military coup. It's why the President of the United States is also the official commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces. There are no such checks and balances on Ironwood.

Robyn gives no fucks about any of that. Oh, she's smart enough to put the pieces together when Ironwood's team tries to nab her and she gets invited to a party not a day later by another Councilor, but she also has testicles the size of her head and knows it's the last chance she has to help Mantle without taking on the entire Atlesian military, so she goes anyway. In addition to having massive genitals, Robyn's also smart and knows how to play politics. Notice how in both Cordially Invited and As Above, So Below, she uses the name "Atlas" instead of "Mantle". That's a deliberate choice. She knows she's the only one in that room who gives a damn about Mantle, so she frames it in terms of the part of the Kingdom the people she's appealing to will care about. It works, sort of. Once the whole scene in the mansion is over, Mantle and Atlas are presenting a united front for once and we get the last bit of hope before the climax of the Volume, but even then, the devil is in the details.

While this whole election plotline is going on, the narrative is still slipping us hints that Atlas is not to be trusted. Pietro points out that "hacking into Mantle's system would be easy. Fortunately, the rest of Atlas is running on an upgraded network" (Volume 7, Episode 7). Once again, Atlas gets the upgrades, Mantle makes do with the scraps. The heating system, which is all that keeps the people of Mantle alive in the Solitas cold, is stuck running on this outdated infrastructure, and nobody has bothered to upgrade it. Remember as well that Tyrian and Watts are successfully framing Ironwood for the murder of his political opposition. For that to work, the people of Mantle have to be so disillusioned with Atlas's rule that Ironwood using force to eliminate his political opponents is believable to people he's supposedly protecting.

Up in Atlas, Ironwood's trying to come up with a response while his robots break up groups of people trying to survive in deadly weather conditions instead of engaging the Grimm drawn by the negativity. Robyn suggests using the air fleet the way it was supposed to be fucking used in the first place, but Ironwood shuts that down when he points out that "if [he] move[s] the fleet, then Atlas is vulnerable. I… I tried to keep the kingdom safe. And now we're losing everything" (Volume 7, Episode 9). Mantle is under attack now. Mantle is vulnerable now. The troops on the ground need support now. Ironwood still refuses to deploy the fleet. His priority is still Atlas. It was always Atlas. It will always be Atlas. Mantle will never be more than an afterthought as long as Ironwood is the sole person in charge. It only ever becomes anything else during the brief moments where he reaches out and starts working alongside people who actually care about Mantle.

The battle itself, as we eventually come to expect from Atlas, is a nightmare. A massive herd of Megoliaths waltzes right into the city and the only thing stopping them are a few soldiers on the battlements and some droids standing in the hole in the wall that still hasn't been repaired. The battleships never engage anything. The battleships aren't even visible during the scenes set in Mantle... but you can sure as hell see them when we cut back to Atlas Academy. We see them right out Ironwood's window. They're still protecting what Ironwood thinks is really important, while the people in Mantle don't even have adequate shelters:

Blake: Head to the nearest shelter!

Yang: Those shelters are gonna fill up soon.

Elm: They're all we've got. We just have to hold off the Grimm.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Protecting Mantle is a losing battle until Ironwood finally commits to evacuating everyone, and even that doesn't last long. The moment Cinder spooks him, he's ready to abandon Mantle to its fate.

To sum things up, Ironwood only ever helps Mantle when he can do so without working for it, when someone pressures him into it, and he stops doing so as soon as he can. He routinely denies his citizens essential rights, defaults to force as a solution to problems, insists on controlling everything around him, and actively believes that sacrificing his own humanity (and sacrifice in general) is the only way to beat Salem. Taking everything I've talked about into account, it's not surprising that Team RWBY doesn't trust him, nor is it surprising that some members of the audience got lured in by the reassurances the narrative offered to soothe away the fears the state of his Kingdom evokes.

This would've been even longer and maybe even had some pretty pictures, but fucking tumblr posted it before I was ready, so that's just one more reason this platform can eat shit.

[fortheloveofwonderland]

90 Days | S.R (Part 3/12)

Not my gif

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Chapter Summary - after going your separate ways, you never expected to see Doctor Spencer Reid again. So when he shows up again, drunk and dazed, how will you react?

Pairing - Spencer Reid / Fem! Reader

Category - angst with a happy ending, smut in later chapter

Content Warnings - usual CM case related stuff, drinking, Spencer disobeying authority, guns, mentions of blood, mentions of drugs and Tobias Hankel

Word Count - 5k

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Join the Taglist for this Series

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Three

He sat crossed legged in the middle of the hotel bed, files spread out around him. But it wasn’t the files that had his attention.

In the middle of the disarray on the bed, laid out neatly were five miniature bottles of whiskey he’d gotten from the mini bar in the room.

He was yet to drink any, he just stared at them. He knew he was going to drink them, it was more of a question of when.

He’d fallen off the wagon already, so what difference did a few more make? Maybe it would even help focus his mind on the case.

He exhaled heavily and picked up the first bottle with a shaking hand. He uncapped it and quickly downed the entire contents.

He tossed the now empty plastic bottle on the floor and picked up one of the files.

He should probably have been worried about how quickly he could forget his sobriety. But that would be something for him to consider once he was back in DC.

As the night rolled into early morning Spencer went over the files again and again and again until his eyes were sore. The four other whiskey miniatures had been drunk and joined the first on the floor.

By four am, Spencer couldn’t keep his exhausted eyes open any longer and he practically passed out in a pile of case files.

***

He awoke with a start. Light was streaming in the room from the crack in the curtains. He blinked a few times, jumping up from the bed.

He frantically flipped through the case files again until he found what he was looking for.

He didn’t know how he’d missed it. He never missed details like this.

Still in yesterday’s wrinkled clothes, bed hair and with no shoes on his feet, he took the file and ran from the room.

He sprinted down the corridor to Prentiss’ room and banged frantically on the door.

“Emily! Emily! I think I’ve found something!”

He heard shuffling inside the room and almost a full minute later the door opened.

Prentiss' long dark hair was tied up in a messy bun on top of her head and she wore only a pair of jogging bottoms and tank top.

“Reid.” She grumbled, rubbing her eyes. “It’s six am.”

“I know, I’m sorry but I think I’ve found something.” he gripped the files tightly.

Prentiss sighed and held the door open.

“You should come in.”

Spencer headed into the room and Prentiss closed it behind them.

“I was looking over the files all night. And I fell asleep and then it hit me. I can’t believe-”

“Reid.” she cut him off, her voice equal parts frustration and sadness. “You’re drunk.”

Spencer pulled a face and shook his head frantically.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes. yes you are.” she chewed her lip. “You’re slurring your words, not making any sense. Your eyes are red raw.”

“I’m not drunk Emily. I had a couple of drinks before I went to sleep but I’m not drunk.”

“You can’t even hear it can you?” She looked so sad at that moment. “You can’t hear how bad you sound.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s what worries me.” She stepped closer to him and cautiously reached out and took the files out of his hands. “Go to sleep, Spencer. You’re officially off the case. And this time I mean it.”

“Emily, I've found something. You have to listen to me.”

“Sleep Spencer. We will address this situation when we’re back at Quantico.” she moved so she was backing him towards the door.

“But Emily-”

“No Spencer. No buts. My decision is final.” She got him to the door and she opened it.

Spencer walked backwards into the corridor.

“Dating sites. All the victims used dating sites. I don’t think the unsub is a coed.” he managed to spit out.

Prentiss frowned at him.

“Spencer,” she spoke sadly. “Sleep it off.” and with that she closed the door.

With his tail between his legs, Spencer headed back to his room.

Once inside he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialled a familiar number. It rang three times.

“Good morning G-Man, how may I assist you today?” Penelope Garcia’s infectious voice travelled to his ears.

“Garcia, I need you to pull names of all the people our victims spoke to on dating sites in the last six months. And I need it ASAP.” he tried his hardest to speak normally after what Emily had said about his speech.

He heard her fingers tapping on a keyboard.

“As soon as I have it, you’ll have it. Garcia out!” she chirruped and then the line went dead.

Emily would have his ass when she found out he’d called Garcia when she’d taken him off the case. But he wanted to help. He wanted to feel like he was doing something because if he didn’t he would crumble.

He would deal with the fall out later. That was a problem for another day.

***

“Penelope Garcia, source of everything technological. How can I be of assistance to you today?”

“Garcia, I need a list compiled.” Luke Alvez spoke down the phone a few hours later from Boston PD.

“Lists are my forte.”

“We think the unsub is meeting his victims on dating sites. We need a list of people the victims were in contact with on various sites.”

He was met with silence.

“Garcia?” Alvez questioned.

“I’ve already compiled that list.” she sounded confused.

“Wow.” Alvez smiled. “I knew you were good but I didn’t know you were able to anticipate our needs.”

Again he was met with silence.

“As much as I would love to add mind reader to my long list of skills, I can’t take the credit.” she sounded confused.

“What do you mean?” Alvez’s smile turned into a frown quickly.

“Reid already asked me for the list. I sent it to him an hour ago. I did think it was odd he had me fax it to the hotel.” Garcia’s voice turned a little guilty now she realised the rest of the team clearly weren’t privy to Reid’s request.

“Thanks Garcia.”

“What’s going on? Why wouldn’t he have shared that with you?”

“He’s not supposed to be on the case.” Alvez sighed. “I have to go. I need that list though Garcia.” Before Garcia could respond he hung up the phone.

He headed out of the small boardroom they were using and into the Boston PD bullpen where Prentiss was talking to JJ, Simmons and detective Delaney.

“Emily, can I have a word?” Alvez spoke quietly. Prentiss nodded, excused herself and followed Alvez back to the boardroom.

“What’s wrong? Did Garcia hit a wall with the list?” she frowned knowing that wouldn’t be the case. Garcia didn’t hit walls and if she did she had a bulldozer at the ready.

“She’d already compiled the list.”

“Ok great?” Prentiss questioned with a frown, knowing there was more to it than that.

“For Reid.”

Prentiss clenched her jaw to stop from swearing or yelling. She was beyond mad. She was seething. She felt her blood boil.

“Reid.” she spat. “Goddammit why is he doing this?” she asked more to herself than to Alvez.

“He must have thought he was helping.” Alvez offered.

“If that were the case he would have shared his findings with us. We need to go over that list quickly. Reid already has a head start on us and he can read a lot faster too. He’s probably already figured out who the unsub is.”

“He’d tell us Emily. He wouldn’t go it alone, he isn’t stupid.”

“No, not stupid.” she sighed. “But he isn’t in the right headspace at the moment. He isn’t thinking straight. I don’t know what he’ll do.”

Prentiss ran her fingers through her hair before leaving the room to find the other agents and fill them in on what had happened.

***

📲 Spencer Reid: Damien Matthews. DOB 10.08.97. 135 Tremont Parkway.

Twenty minutes later all of the agents' phones buzzed at once. They all received the same text message from Spencer.

“Our unsub?” Rossi frowned looking at his phone.

“At least a person of high interest.” Prentiss agreed. “Matt and Luke, come with me to the address. The rest of you stay here and keep looking over these lists just in case.”

“Emily.” Rossi spoke again before she had a chance to leave.

“Yes Dave?”

He turned his tablet around so she could see the map on his screen.

“Tremont Parkway is less than three miles from the hotel.”

Prentiss’ blood ran cold.

If Spencer had gone after their unsub alone, she didn’t think she would be able to help him. If he’d disregarded the rest of his team and gone it alone, his days in the FBI may be numbered and there would be nothing Emily could do about that.

***

Spencer parked the rented SUV around the corner from the house. He wore his bulletproof vest and drew his gun as soon as he was in the eye line of the house.

He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He knew how bad this was and normally he would never do something so dangerous and reckless. But the young girls of Northeastern College were living in fear and Spencer wanted to put an end to that.

He knew his team would be close behind after he’d sent the text and he knew he should wait for backup.

But his better judgement had gone out the window when he’d decided to drink again last night.

He was sober now, at least he was sure he was. It was now just past lunchtime and he’d taken the units he’d consumed into consideration and calculated that by now, the alcohol content would have left his system.

He snuck around the side of the house, ensuring he kept himself out of sight. Through the side window he caught a glimpse of the man in the picture Garcia had sent him. Their unsub. Damien Matthews, responsible for killing at least three young women.

Spencer scanned what he could see of the rest of the room and once he was sure their unsub was alone he headed around the back of the house. If he was unarmed, this would go smoothly. If he wasn’t, this could be a little harder to achieve alone.

But it was too late now. He was here, he was as prepared as he could be. He was committed to this now.

He reached the back steps and crept up them slowly and quietly. His spare hand that wasn’t gripped around the gun reached out and cautiously tried the door handle.

It was unlocked.

Spencer edged the door as slowly as humanly possible, keeping his eyes and his gun trained straight ahead. His breathing was low and shallow and his footsteps gentle and deliberate to keep the noise he made to the absolute minimum.

He made it across the kitchen without incident. As he closed in on a door, he heard a male voice, probably Damien, probably talking on the phone, but he couldn’t quite work out what he was saying.

With a deep breath, he reached for the handle.

***

“How far out are we?” Prentiss asked as Simmons drove.

“We’re almost there.”

“That was Reid’s SUV.” She told Simmons and Alvez pointing out the rear window at a car now disappearing from view.

“It should be...yep, we’re here.” Simmons stopped the car and all three agents jumped out of the car.

“Simmons, you and Alvez take the back, I’ll take the front.” Prentiss instructed them.

***

“Damien Matthews.” Spencer spoke the man's name and he spun to face the agent. He hadn’t been talking on the phone. He’d been talking to the college aged blonde girl strapped to a chair. She was clad in only underwear and had duct tape over her mouth. She hadn’t been reported missing yet.

Spencer's eyes darted around the room and quickly established from the window he’d looked through, he’d had no chance of spotting her.

“I’m doctor Spencer Reid with the FBI.”

“One more move and I kill her.” Damien had a gun trained at the girl's head.

“You don’t want to do this.” Spencer kept his own gun trained on Matthews.

“You don’t know what I want.” The younger man scoffed.

“I’m fairly certain you want to get out of here alive. And if you so much as tense your finger on that trigger, I will shoot you.”

Matthews' composure wavered a little. He could see by the look on the agent's face that he meant it. And he didn’t want to die.

Suddenly he corrected himself and a menacing smirk came to his lips. The barrel of his gun shifted from the girl and was suddenly looking right at Spencer.

“Not if I shoot you first.”

***

Prentiss headed up the front steps slowly and cautiously. She didn’t know what awaited her inside. Alvez and Simmons made their way around the side of the house much like Spencer had done moments before.

And then they heard it. The unmistakable sound of a single gunshot.

“NOW!” Prentiss yelled down her radio as she kicked open the front door, her gun trained in the direction of three people.

One was on the floor bleeding. One was strapped to a chair and the other was knelt next to the chair.

The door on the far side of the room opened and Luke and Matt burst in, gun’s at the ready.

They took in the scene before them.

“Luke call for a medic.” Pretiss signed, looking at the man on the floor.

“He had a gun.” Spencer didn’t look at her as he untied the girl's restraints and removed the duct tape from her mouth.

“I need help man! I’m dying here!” the man on the floor groaned. Simmon’s stood over him.

“You got shot in the arm, you’ll live.” Simmons scoffed at him.

There were soon paramedics and cops swarming on the scene. Damien was taken off in an ambulance and so was the girl he had abducted, Sarah Miller.

“Her wounds appeared to be superficial, I think she’ll be ok.” Spencer muttered more to himself as he stood on the sidewalk watching the ambulances pull away from the house.

“I can’t believe you came here without backup. Under strict orders not to work the case.” Prentiss shook her head. “What has gotten into you?”

“He needed to be taken into custody before another girl got hurt. I was closest to the scene. I wanted to make sure he didn’t get away.”

“We’re going to have a serious talk when we get back to Quantico.”

As if he didn’t already know that.

“But you did save a girl's life, so that will count for something.”

So he might not actually lose his job. Honestly, at that moment in time, Spencer wasn’t sure if he cared if lost his job or not.

Which really should have worried him.

***

It was late by the time they arrived back from Boston. They all spent about an hour at the office before Prentiss told them to call it night.

“Reid, I’d like a word before you go.” She informed him before heading back into her office.

Spencer sighed, this was the last thing he needed right now. But it had been inevitable.

He’d sat alone on the jet not wishing to converse with his team. JJ had tried to chat with him, mostly to gauge how he was but he’d given very few words in response and eventually she’d left him alone.

He grabbed his bag and headed up to Prentiss’ office, closing the door behind him.

“Take a seat.”

“I’d rather stand if it’s all the same with you.” Spencer replied a little hostile.

Prentiss sighed.

“Reid, what you did today crossed the line. You disobeyed direct orders and tried to single handedly take down an unsub.”

“I didn’t try to. I succeeded.” He muttered but Prentiss heard him.

“Spencer I have tried cutting you slack after what you’ve been through but this isn’t you. Drinking, questioning my authority? I’m your friend so I’ve tried to be lenient with you but I don’t know if I can keep covering for you.”

“Then don’t.” He snapped. “Why don’t you stop being my friend and start being my boss.”

Prentiss stood up and slammed her hands on her desk.

“Badge and gun. Now.”

Spencer didn’t even hesitate. He grabbed his badge from his back pocket and unholstered his gun. He slammed them on the desk.

“With pleasure.”

“You're on administrative leave until further notice. Do yourself a favour, Spencer, get some help. Talk to someone. Go to a NA meeting. Get better.”

“Are we done here?” He ignored her words.

Prentiss sighed.

“We are.”

Without another word Spencer turned on his heels and stormed out of the office. Thankfully everyone else on the team had left so he was able to make a quick getaway.

He had no idea the next time he’d be back. If ever.

***

“Realise I don't want to be a miser,

Confide with sly you'll be the wiser.

Young blood is the lovin' upriser,

How come everybody want to keep it like the kaiser?”

You sang along to the lyrics as you wrapped your hair in a towel after stepping out of the shower.

You were feeling in surprisingly high spirits today and you found yourself twirling around the living room to the music.

“Give it away give it away give it away now

Give it away give it away give it away now

Give it away give it away give it away now.”

You danced through to the kitchen and poured yourself a glass of red wine.

Most of the time you find yourself moving about life on autopilot. You weren’t miserable per se, but you weren’t always happy either.

Today was one of those rare days when you’d woken up feeling on top of the world and thankfully the feeling had lasted all day.

You sipped the wine as you shimmied about the living room, thinking nothing could bring you down.

And that’s when the frantic banging on the door started.

You froze almost instantly. It was late. Someone was at your door. That couldn’t be good.

You stood perfectly still, not making a sound in the hopes they would go away. But they didn’t. The banging got louder and more frantic.

You swallowed your fear and put the wine glass down on the coffee table. You opened the drawer and pulled out your gun.

You pointed it at the door, your heart racing.

And then the voice came.

“Y/N? Y/N, are you in there? It’s me.” There was a pause followed by, “Spencer. Spencer Reid. We met at a bar a few nights ago.”

You dropped the gun to your side and a frown appeared on your face.

What on earth was Spencer Reid doing at your apartment this late?

“Uhm yeah, I’m here. Give me a second.”

Confusion riddled your whole body.

You stored the gun back in the drawer and turned the music down before slowly heading to the door.

You slid the deadbolt and turned the other three locks on the door. When you opened it a rather dishevelled looking FBI agent stared back at you.

His eyes lazily took in every inch of you. It wasn’t like when you met and he’d given you that quick once over to assess you. He was checking you out.

You wore a bright red kimono and nothing else aside from the towel in your hair. It was short, stopping above the knees and belted at your waist, hugging every inch of your body and dipping low to reveal the soft skin of your chest.

You pulled the kimono closer to your body feeling self-conscious as his eyes finally landed back on your face.

“Hi.” Was all he managed to say, feeling dizzy at the sight of you.

“Hi.” you replied. “Uhm, what are you doing here? Because if this is some kind of booty call or something I am not-“

“What?” Spencer seemed shocked by your words. “No, no, no this isn’t...I’m not...no.” He shook his head desperately.

He was an enigma that was for sure. The first time you’d met he’d turned you down. Now he was acting like the thought of sleeping with you was the worst thing in the world. But you were sure you’d just seen him looking you up and down hungrily.

You could smell the alcohol on his breath and hear it in his slightly slurred words. What did he want?

“Then what can I help you with?”

He gnawed his lip, running his fingers through his unkempt hair.

“I got suspended.” He sighed. “For drinking.”

You raised an eyebrow at him.

“So your solution to that was to drink more?”

He looked guiltily at his shoes.

“Yeah. The logic surpasses me too.”

“Spencer.” you said his name to get his attention back. It worked and he looked back at you. “What are you doing here?”

“I uhm...I don’t really know.” His face contorted as though he’d only just realised where he was and it was hitting him how stupid it was. “If I didn’t come here, I would have kept drinking. Or worse.”

Or worse. You wondered what he meant by that but you didn’t think now was the time to ask.

“But why here? Is there not somewhere else you could have gone?”

He sighed heavily.

“All my friends are members of my team. And since I got out of prison they all look at me like I’m broken. They pity me and I hate it. I wanted to go somewhere with no opinions, no judgement.” He echoed the words you’d used at the bar.

You should tell him to leave. You didn’t know him, you didn’t owe him anything. But the look in his eyes broke your heart. You knew what it was like to feel lost, to feel as though there was no hope.

Damn your empathetic nature.

“I guess you should come in then.” you shrugged and held open the door for him to come in.

You motioned for him to sit on the couch which he did. You quickly grabbed the glass of wine off the table.

“I’ll make some coffee.” You told him before disappearing into the kitchen.

You sighed as you poured the remains of the glass down the sink. You took the bottle and hid it away in the back of the cupboard.

While the kettle boiled you removed the towel from your hair and tried to tame it a little.

This was crazy. You weren't equipped to deal with this, not least for a guy you didn’t know. You thought about calling Callie because you were in way over your head but you didn’t want to drag anyone else into this.

You just had to get through the next few hours, sober him up a little and let him be on his way.

But the words or worse, were haunting you.

So much for your good mood.

You poured two mugs of coffee and placed them on a tray along with a small jug of milk and a sugar shaker.

You pushed the kitchen door open with your hip, expertly carrying the tray of beverages back into the living room.

Spencer wasn’t sitting on the couch where you left him but now over by the bookshelf next to the window.

He turned to look at you as you placed the drinks on the coffee table.

“Extensive collection you have here.”

“I don’t have a particular favourite genre, I’ll read anything once.”

“An inquisitive mind.” He smiled a little heading back to the couch.

You smiled to yourself, there was no way you’d be able to use words such as inquisitive when you’d been drinking.

“I guess so.” You sat down. “I’m a writer, freelance mostly, so it helps to have a broad knowledge.”

“Mostly?” He sat next to you.

“Uhm yeah.” you blushed. “I want to write a novel but I can’t find the right story I want to tell.”

“You should tell your story.” He started heaping sugar in his mug.

“Not much of one to tell.” you lied. “Do you want some coffee with your sugar?”

“Maybe you could tell mine.” He gave you a wry smile, ignoring your sugar comment. He heard it all the time.

“From what I know about you, I feel like that would end up being the length of War and Peace.”

He chuckled.

“Probably.”

You both sipped the coffee in silence for a few minutes. The air in the apartment felt thick, heavy with a tension of some kind. You couldn’t place it.

When Spencer didn’t say anything else, you couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Spencer.” you put the mug down on the coffee table and as if mirroring you he did the same. “Don’t feel as though you have to tell me, but I’ve got to ask. What did you mean when you said you would have kept drinking? Or worse?”

Spencer gave you a sad smile.

“About eleven years ago, on a case I was taken hostage by our unsub.” He saw the frown on your face. “Uh, unknown subject. Serial killer. His name was Tobias Hankel and he had several personalities. One of them, his father, would beat me to an inch of my life. But Tobias...he uhm...he would inject me with a drug to help the pain away. A drug called dilaudid. It’s medical grade heroin.”

“You got addicted.” you filled in the blanks.

“I did.” He nodded sadly. “After I got clean I made the decision to cut all narcotics from life, including alcohol. I’ve had the odd drink over the years, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I had one slip a few years ago and drank a lot but I went straight to an NA meeting and never touched a drop again. Until the night I met you. And now, I can’t seem to stop.” Tears filled his eyes but he didn’t allow them to overflow.

You reached out your hand and tentatively put it on his knee.

“Have you been to a meeting recently?”

“No. I need to though. Tomorrow.”

“That’s a good idea. The first step towards overcoming anything is first admitting you have a problem.” you removed your hand and Spencer’s leg felt cold and empty without your touch.

“Will you come with me?”

His words surprised you and he saw it on your features.

“If that’s too weird please tell me. I just...I’m worried I won’t go through with it if I go alone.”

How had you ended up in the middle of this? You’d struck up a conversation in a bar and now you seemed to be well and truly entangled in this man's life.

But you couldn’t say no. His eyes were pleading for you even if his words weren’t. You could see he needed you, for whatever reason or in what capacity you weren't sure.

But you’d known the first time your eyes had met, you could never deny this man anything.

“Of course.”

Spencer’s weight seemed to lift slightly at your words. After that you finished your drinks in silence.

“I don’t think it’s safe to let you go home.” you conceded after mulling this over for a few minutes in your head. “You should sleep here. On the couch of course.” you blushed stupidly.

“What? No, I can’t ask you to do that. I’m already asking so much of you.”

“You’re not asking.” you smiled softly at him. “I’m telling you. You’re staying here where I know you’re safe.”

There was a look shared between you, one which neither of you knew the meaning behind.

Understanding maybe. Recognition. Recognition that you’d both been through your share of hell.

Maybe you had been fated to meet that night. Maybe it was the universe's way of telling you both you needed each other.

Whatever it was, you were sure in that moment Spencer would be a permanent fixture in your life.

“I’ll get a blanket and some pillows. Make yourself at home.” you stood up now and headed to the bedroom.

You fished a blanket and spare pillows out of your closet and returned to Spencer.

Spencer’s shoes and tie were on the floor next to the couch. He was laying down on the couch, his long legs curled up so he could fit. And his eyes were closed, his breathing long and drawn out.

You smiled at the sight. It was the first time you’d seen him peaceful. It melted your heart.

You put the pillows on the floor in case he decided he wanted them in the night. Cautiously you draped the blanket over him, making sure he was covered from his chin to his feet.

You breathed him in one last time. Beautiful didn’t even begin to cover it.

You tore your eyes away from him and quietly headed back towards your room.

“Y/N,” he whispered just as you reached the door.

“Yes?” you thought he was out cold.

“I’m only going to say this because the whiskey has given me confidence but,” he paused and you held your breath. “If you only wear one thing for the rest of your life, make it that damn kimono.” His words, although sleepy, were dripping with seduction.

You shuddered at his words, unable to stop the smile spreading to your lips.

“Goodnight Spencer.”

“Goodnight beautiful.”

Your stomach was in knots as you let yourself into your room and closed the door behind you.

You felt weak. You also felt confused. Maybe he hadn’t been lying to you when he’d said he wasn’t that kind of man. Maybe his rejection hadn’t been anything to do with not being interested in you.

You slipped the kimono off and slid under the covers.

All you knew was you hadn’t been called beautiful in a very long time and you hadn’t felt beautiful for even longer.

Your last conscious thought before you fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time in what felt like forever was: must buy more kimonos.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist -

Series Taglist -

@eevee0722 @drspencerreid80 @thatsonezesty13 @hugedumpsterfire @beepbooptoop @givemeth

All ships & genres -

@muffin-cup @andiebeaword @measure-in-pain @takeyourleap-of-faith @spencers-dria @sexy-dumpster-fire

SR x reader -

@frickin-bats @dreatine @adoringanakin @dr-spencerr-reidd @sleepretreat @spenxerslut @sweetandsunny

@bellaswanismysoulmate @mcumorningstar @dontcallmekittens

@kuolonsyoja @radtwinkie @drayshadow @lytrc

@nani-2305 @rainsong01 @this-is-doctor-and-its-calm @safespacespence @pastelbabygirl19

@matthew-gray-gubler-lover @people-whatabunchofbastards @justreadingficsdontmindme @smurphyse

[chapcl]

peace sign i’m too lazy to make a proper promo right now, but hey! i’m mandy and i revamped. if you wanna check me out n maybe plot or something that’d be cool. i might make starters in the meantime

[queenxxxsupreme]

Defender, Protector, Keeper (Arthur Morgan x f!reader)

A/N: This is one of those things I write that should have a first part but.... It doesn’t.... I do plan on making more within this little.... world??? With this mom!reader and her son Ben. So sorry for this mess. 

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: violence, nothing out of canon, Micah is mean to children, mute child (is that a warning?) fluff, Arthur being a father figureish thing, soft Arthur, I don’t know what else to tag, blood? it’s all canon to the game

Summary: Arthur steps in to help you with your son after a run in with Micah.

***

“Miss Y/L/N! Miss Y/L/N!”

You moved out of the tent upon hearing Mrs. Grimshaw calling your name. 

“Right here, Mrs. Grimshaw.” 

“There you are. Where is that boy of yours?” She looked around as if trying to peek into the tent. I’ve got a little chore for him and Jack.”

“He was just in here helping me with laundry, but he wouldn’t mind giving you a hand.” You turned to go into the tent. “Ben? Mrs. Grimshaw needs your help.”

Ben, your five-year-old son, put the clothing in his hand down and looked at you. 

“Come on with me, Ben. I’ve already got Jack over by the woods.” Susan gestured for him to follow her.

“What are the boys going to do?” You asked her. 

“Help Lenny and Sean pick some firewood. The little fellas ain’t gonna pick nothin’ but some small kindling. The fellas– Well, Lenny won’t let the boys hurt themselves.”

You fought the urge to volunteer to follow your son. It was just little kindling sticks and twigs. It wasn’t like they were going to chop down entire trees.

Susan, sensing your hesitation, stopped just at the edge of your tent.

“They aren’t going far into the woods at all, Y/N. Charles and Bill are on guard duty and Sean and Lenny are going to be with them. Nothin’s gonna happen to those boys.” She assured you.

You nodded your head, reaching down to run your fingers over Ben’s hair. 

“Go on and help Mrs. Grimshaw, Ben.”

He silently followed alongside her. 

You continued to fold laundry until it was finished. Once that was complete, you decided to go out and see if there was anything else around camp you could help with. 

It seemed to be a rather mellow evening. No one was out doing any jobs nor was anyone talking about any jobs, which was a rarity. In the three months that you had been staying with the Van Der Linde Gang, you had quickly realized their lifestyle was fast paced and there was almost always something to do. 

You made your way over towards the tent the girls in camp stayed in. 

“Hi, Y/N.” Tilly greeted you first. She was reading a book.

“Hey, Y/N!” Mary-Beth was also reading. Karen sat on a chair next to the two singing. “You wanna sit with us for a bit? You’ve been working hard all day.”

“That’s okay, Mary-Beth. I think I should go see if Ben is doing okay with Sean and Lenny.” You looked around towards the woods.

“What’s he doing with those two fools?” Tilly put her book down in her lap. 

“Mrs. Grimshaw had him and Jack helping them with firewood.”

“Last I saw, Lenny and Sean were sitting over by the fire.”

A knot began to form in your stomach. Why hadn’t your son returned to you?

You moved to search for Lenny and Sean, but they proved to be easy to find. They were sitting at a fire with a few other gang members. 

“Excuse me, gentlemen.” You cut off Sean. “Where is Ben at?”

“Hi, Miss Y/L/N.” Lenny gave you a charming smile. “Ben and Jack went over towards John and Abigail’s tent. Jack said they were going to play.”

“Thank you, Mr. Summers.” 

***

You did indeed find your son at John and Abigail’s tent. He sat outside of it with Jack. Jack was talking about some sort of story that Hosea had told him about a bear while your little Benny just kept playing with his half of the deck of cards. 

“Y/N.”

You looked up to Abigail. 

“Hi, Abigail.”

“I hope you don’t mind that Jack brought Ben over. I know Susan had them working earlier.”

“I don’t mind.” You shook your head, smiling. You crossed your arms as you watched Ben. Jack didn’t seem to care that Ben was silent and wasn’t responding to him. Jack had learned since you both arrived at camp that talking wasn’t something Ben did, so he usually did all of the talking for Jack. You were thankful for this. In the beginning, you weren’t sure how young Jack would react to your quiet son. 

“Do you want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with me?” Abigail asked. “I don’t usually get much down time, but neither do you. You’re always running around.”

“Have to keep busy, you know.” You chuckled a little. “Coffee sounds nice.”

The both of you got your drinks and then sat down at a table not too far from the boys. 

“They grow like weeds.” She thought out loud, shaking her head softly. “I’m gonna have to get Jack some new clothes soon. He’s about to be too big for nearly all the pants he’s got. Maybe Ben could fit into what Jack can’t wear. Ben is a little thing. That way you don’t have to go out and waste money. I mean, the clothes aren’t perfect. Jack has needed them patched more than once. But they work.”

“That’s very kind of you, Abigail. Thank you.”

She gave you a smile.

“Momma! Momma!” Jack called as he ran over to Abigail. 

Ben rushed up to you, a smile on his lips. His hair fell into his face and he tried to wipe it out of his eyes but he didn’t do too good of a job.

“Hi, love.” You smiled down at him, brushing your fingers through his hair. “Are you having fun?”

He nodded, looking over to Jack. 

“Momma, can we go give Sean his cards back?”

“Where is Sean at?” Abigail asked, looking around the camp. 

“He’s just on the other side of camp at one of the other fires.” You told her, recalling where you had seen him earlier.  

“If Miss Y/L/N says that Ben can go, then yes. You can. But you have to ask her.”

Ben tugged on your skirt as if to ask you.

“Miss Y/L/N! Can we take Sean his cards?” Jack waved the stack of cards around.

“I don’t see why not.”

“I’ll race you over there!” 

You watched as Jack took off first with Ben just behind him. 

“I’m glad Jack finally has someone to play with and keep him company.” Abigail smiled. 

“They get along so well.” You nodded. “I was a little…. worried at first, if I’m honest.”

“Oh really?”

“Just because…. Well, sometimes it’s hard for Ben.”

Abigail nodded her head understandingly. 

“He’s a sweet boy, Y/N. You raised him well.”

“Thank you-,”

“You dumb little rat! Watch where you’re going next time!”

You stood up upon hearing the sound of shouting. Feeling the urge to find out what had happened, you ventured across camp until you found your son and Micah Bell. Micah had a hold of Ben’s arm and was holding him at an awkward angle. 

“When someone speaks to you, little boy, you’re supposed to answer them!”

“Micah!” You raised your voice. 

Micah turned his head to look at you but didn’t let your son’s arm go. 

Anger bubbled in your veins. 

“Ah, the whore. Maybe someone better teach this boy manners before he ends up worse than his ma.”

You pushed against Micah’s chest. Ben was crying at this point, trying to grab onto your skirt anywhere he could but Micah was finding amusement in pulling the boy away from you. 

“Micah! Get your hands off of that boy!” Abigail shouted. 

The next few moments happened all too quickly for you to know what exactly happened. But Micah released Ben and he fell backwards to the ground. Your hand flew up to smack him and you landed a nice hit on his cheek, but he was quicker than you and far more skilled in fighting so the backhand to your cheek came out of seemingly nowhere. 

You took a few steps back to keep from falling flat on your ass. You ended up hitting something solid. A hand found your side and another your arm. 

It was Arthur Morgan. He only took a couple seconds to make sure you were steady on your feet before moving around you to deliver two punches to Micah. The nasty man fell back as blood began to pour out of his nose. 

“Y/N, are you okay?” Abigail rushed to one side of you and Mary-Beth came to the other. 

You didn’t answer them. You only pushed them away to get to your son. 

Tears streamed down his cheeks as he sat in the dirt where he had fallen. 

There was a hand on your wrist that stopped you just before you could get to him. 

Arthur turned you back around to face him. You pulled against him, wanting desperately to get to your son.

“You’ve got blood on ya, pumpkin.” He murmured quietly, using his thumb to wipe away the little bit of blood from your busted lip. “He don’t need to see that.”

“Th-Thank you.” You whispered. 

��Can I pick him up? Move him somewhere else for you?”

You nodded. 

Arthur let you go and moved towards Ben. 

“Come here, Benny. You alright?”

Ben nodded his head, shyly tucking his face into Arthur’s neck.

Arthur took him to a table and sat him down on it, then pulled out a chair for you. But you couldn’t sit down just yet. You had to make sure he was okay. 

Your hands cupped his face and tilted his head up so you could check him over for any marks. 

“Are you okay, love? Does anything hurt?”

He held up his hands to you, showing that his palms were scraped up and bleeding a little. He sniffled, his bottom lip quivering. 

“I’ll get somethin’ to clean those up, Y/N.” Mary-Beth spoke, moving towards Strauss’s wagon.

Upon seeing the scratches and bleeding scrapes from Ben falling back and catching himself on his hands, anger welled up inside of Arthur. 

He turned and started to make his way towards Micah. 

“Arthur! Arthur Morgan!” Abigail called after him, but she couldn’t stop him herself. “John! Mr. Smith! Please!”

You couldn’t pay attention to what was happening with Arthur right now. Ben was important and took priority. 

You brushed his hair back and sat down in front of him. 

“I’m so sorry you got hurt, love.” You leaned forward to kiss his cheek. 

He wrapped his arms around your neck, careful not to touch you with his injured hands, and then slid down into your lap. 

A few moments later, Mary-Beth returned with a bowl of water and a few rags. Tilly was with her too, helping to carry bandages. 

“Are you alright, Benji?” Tilly asked. He nodded his head without lifting it from your chest. “He didn’t get too hurt by that nasty Micah, did he?”

“Think it just spooked him more than anything.” You answered her. “Thank you, girls.”

The items were placed on the table and then they left. 

“Ben, I need you to sit on the table so I can reach you, love.”

He shook his head. 

“We’ve got to get these scratches cleaned up, okay? We don’t want them to get yucky.”

A hand found your shoulder. You looked to see Arthur moving around your chair. 

“Lemme give ya some help. That way Benny can stay on your lap where he’s comfortable.”

You nodded your head, giving him a little smile as a thank you. 

“Hey, Benny? Can I see your hands?”

Benny shifted around on your lap so that he could easily face Arthur. He gave Arthur one hand. 

“This might sting just a bit, but I promise it’ll be over soon.” 

Arthur got a rag wet and began to clean the dirt and little bit of blood from Ben’s small palm. 

“You’re a strong fella, Benny. You know that?”

Ben sniffled. 

“I heard you helped Sean and Lenny with getting firewood. Did you carry all the big logs by yourself?”

A little grin tugged at your son’s lips. He shook his head. 

Once he was cleaned up and Arthur had carefully wrapped up his hands, Ben looked around for Jack. He was with Hosea. The two weren’t very far away at all. Ben shimmied down from your lap but stayed by you. His eyes were focused on Jack. He wanted to go play with his friend. 

“You can go on, love.” You told him. He flashed you a little toothy smile before taking off in the direction of Hosea and Jack. 

Arthur stayed on his knees beside you for a few moments, watching Ben go. He let out a breath through his nose and shook his head. 

“That bastard is lucky I don’t put a bullet in him.” He rose to his feet, shaking his head. 

“Ben is okay, Arthur.” You turned your head to look at him. “He just…. He was just shaken up a bit. But he’s okay.”

“He hit you too. No man should ever treat a lady like that.” 

You admired his words, the way he viewed things. 

A little smile came to your lips and you watched him sit down next to you. 

“Well, Mr. Morgan. Not everyone has the same ideals as you.”

Arthur shook his head, fingers curling into a fist. He was still worked up over the situation. 

“It’ll be okay, Arthur.” You reached over to place your hand on his. “I can take a hit just fine. But I do appreciate you stepping in. It was really kind of you to help clean up Ben.”

He became a bit sheepish at your words, tipping his head down so you couldn’t see his eyes completely thanks to the brim of his hat. He cleared his throat. 

“Just-Just hate seein’ the little guy cry is all.”

You smiled a bit and gave his hand a squeeze before moving away from the table he sat at. 

Arthur watched you leave, then turned his head to watch the two youngest members of the gang with Hosea. Hosea was telling a story while Jack and Ben listened. 

Arthur turned his head back to see where you had gone off to. You were standing with Abigail near Pearson’s tent. Abigail said something that caused you to look at Arthur, a smile pulling at your lips then you looked back at her, shaking your head and bringing your hand up to cover your mouth. It was a poor attempt to hide a giggle. 

Arthur fixed the hat on his head and decided to go towards his horse. 

“When are you gonna tell her?” Charles spoke from his horse. He was messing with a strap of Taima’s saddle. 

“Tell her what?”

Charles rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

“I’m not oblivious to it, Arthur. I don’t think any of us in camp are.”

“To what?”

“That you fancy her.”

Arthur mounted his horse, shifting around in the saddle a bit.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Mr. Smith.” He adjusted his hat. 

“Yeah, I’m sure you don’t.”

“You wanna come with me? Or keep standing there goin’ on about it?”

Taglist: @winterwolf @lauramb7 @caraqas @bluscryn @krenee1drful @zodiacaldust @nonodino @cal-lifornication @thefirelordm @sargeantsea @sokkasdarling @thecollection @mayday1284 @kashasenpai @misskrql @brooke-supernatural16 @lassiee @hocdolliday @micahs-bird 

If your name is in italics, it wouldn’t let me tag you :(

[l-r-christian]

Title: 'The noble stag's daughter; A Halloween romance'

First Meeting - Thunder Monster - First Crush - First Family Ball - First Heartbreak - First Christmas - A Day With Grandfather

Warnings: Fluff just all of the fluff, Cute Mikaelson moments

It was the first of October as Rebekah smiled dressing Y/N who was smiling up at her aunt kicking her feet as she sat on a chair while Rebekah placed a hat on her head then place the girl down watching the eight year old skip out giggling. Rebekah had placed green tights and a pumpkin dress on the girl as her aunt was going to make sure the girl was going to have the best Halloween since they couldn't give her one the las few years.

"Well well look at this Nik. A cute little pumpkin." Kol said picking up the girl who squealed happily as Klaus smiled and Rebekah walked out smirking.

"I have out done myself. Got a costume for each day up until Halloween."

"I see, going to take her trick-or-treating also?" Kol asked placing Y/N down with a smile seeing Klaus crouched down holding his hands out to the girl smiling soft as she grabbed them.

"That we are."

"Is that my baby pumpkin?" Elijah cooed crouched down as Y/N saw her father and pure joy came over her face running up to Elijah. Y/N placed kisses on his face as Elijah grabbed her little hands kissing them then scooped his daughter up into his arms smiling feeling her cuddle up to him and Elijah fixed her little hat.

"Adorable Rebekah. You have out done yourself."

"Thank you Elijah. Be ready because I have more."

Four days into October and Rebekah had dressed Y/N as a little bat and was running down stairs stopping smiling seeing Elijah with Gia. Both were talking about something as the girl just wanted to see her father happy since Elijah had been only focused on his daughter. So when Y/N saw Elijah getting closer to the younger vampire, the girl began to push them together.

"What are you doing small one?" Mikael asked getting down behind Y/N since saving the girl a month ago. Mikael had been wrapped around his grand daughter's finger unable to say no to the girl, doing whatever she asked of the vampire. Much like her uncles and father, Mikael was willing to slaughter anyone to protect the girl.

"Watching daddy with Gia. See daddy likes Gia and she likes him back so I been trying to get them together.....Daddy deserve to be happy."

"I see. And why are you a bat?"

"Aunt Beka picked out my costumes all the way up to til Halloween." Y/N chirped looking up at her grandfather smiling brightly as Mikael nodded taking in the information.

"Why hasn't your father act on his feelings?"

"Busy, also the scary suit people papa."

"I see then I shall help you on this little endeavor." Mikael said smiling as Y/N brighten up as operation make Elijah happy went into affect to which Mikael got to see just how much of a Mikaelson Y/N was. Elijah smiled seeing Mikael with Y/N believing he was drawing with the girl unaware his daughter was working with his father to get him a girlfriend.

"Okay! We find out what Gia likes then hint it at daddy." Y/N said showing Mikael as Rebekah raised an eyebrow seeing Mikael nodding listening intently to the young Mikaelson.

"What are you plotting Y/N?"

"Getting daddy and Gia together. Papa is help." Y/N tells Rebekah who smirked sitting joining in. A week away from Halloween with Y/N dressed as Wednesday Addams of the Mikaelson Halloween ball as a Halloween block party was passing out candy to the children. Elijah stood watching Mikael hold Y/N up away from boys her own age and it was amusing to Elijah when he spotted Gia making his breathing hitch.

"I hope you don't mind but Y/N want to match costumes so we took Gia to get a Morticia Addams dress. By the way Gia is amazing with Y/N." Rebekah says watching Y/N run to Gia who pick the girl up with a smile as Mikael was glaring at the young boys. Rebekah knew the quickest way for a woman to earn Elijah's affections was how they treated Y/N so to see Gia adore Y/N was a winner in Elijah's eyes.

"You planned this?"

"You'll be surprised to know I did not." Rebekah said as Elijah looked at her then walked over to Gia and Y/N. The vampire jumped feeling a hand on her lower back looking to see Elijah smiling softly as he kissed his daughter's head.

"Looks like you are the Morticia to our Wednesday and Gomez." Elijah teased lightly seeing the vampire flushing as Y/N smiled hugging Gia saying how pretty she was. Hours into the night Y/N sat on Mikael's forearm watching Elijah dance with Gia making the young witch excited.

"It is working!"

"What is working?" Klaus asked spotting the brightness in his niece's eyes as Mikael smirked looking at his son.

"Your niece as planned to get Elijah with young Gia."

"Oh?" Klaus said smirking deciding to join in getting Elijah with Gia also. The day of Halloween Y/N was excited dressed as a Viking warrior she rush down stairs getting Mikael's and Hayley's attention hearing her let out a battle cry waving a fake axe pretending to kill Mikael who played along. Hope squealed happy to see her cousin as Mikael played dead and Y/N looked to Hayley who was trying to not to laugh.

"Had me the princess."

"Okay please don't hurt me." Hayley says placing Hope in a wagon the girl brought with her and Hayley smiled watching Y/N take off with Hope and pretend attack Marcel. Klaus walked into the den with a raised eyebrow seeing Mikael getting up and the sounds of Kol dying dramatically.

"Do I want to know?"

"Y/N wanted to be a Viking warrior princess this year." Rebekah says carrying two bowls of candy getting ready for trick-or-treaters seeing Gia crouched down in front of Y/N with a smile.

"I take it Gia and Elijah are taking the girls?"

"Yes since Mikael had scared the neighborhood boys. And hopefully Elijah and Gia get together at the end of the night."

Elijah smiled watching Gia with his daughter and niece as they got back from trick-or-treating and Y/N had asked the vampire to help her get ready for bed. Next thing both vampires knew they were in Elijah's bed panting when a roll of thunder reached their ears. Gia flushed when Elijah placed one of his shirts on her before kissing her lightly when Y/N came running in carrying a teddy bear Gia got her.

"Daddy, thunder monster and Thor are being scary."

"I know babygirl, come here." Elijah said opening his arms to his daughter but saw her climb into Gia's arms and Elijah smiled softly wrapping his arms around both girls. Y/N smiled snuggling between them falling asleep as Elijah rubbing her back.

"You know, Y/N and my family had been plotting to get us together."

"Oh! I.....but...why?" Gia asked feeling shy as Elijah cupped her cheek rubbing it with his thumb eyes twinkling with adoration as seeing Gia holding his daughter with such care made him love her even more.

"Y/N wants me happy. The clever girl found out my feelings for you and had been pushing us together."

"Truly your daughter. Always thinking ten steps ahead to which I am glad for." Gia says softly leaning forward kissing Elijah making him smile against her lips before both fell asleep.

Morning light shined though Elijah's window as the vampire woke surprised to find Gia and Y/N curled into one another while snuggling into his warmth. Elijah smiled softly watching them both for a moment.

"Goodmorning beautiful." Elijah said softly seeing Gia wake up catching her flushing face. Y/N caught both of their attention whe she rolled over snuggling back into Gia and Elijah chuckled softly kissing his daughter's head before gently kissing Gia.

"I'll go make my favorite girls breakfast. And Gia.....do know I care for you deeply."

"I know.....I care for you deeply too." Gia says smiling knowing that she wasn't going anywhere as she adored both daughter and father too much to leave. Gia breathed deeply smiling burying her nose in Y/N's curls happily listening to the girl breath softly cuddling into the vampire.

[angryschnauzer]

He’s A Keeper

Summary: Working as an artist hired by Durrell Zoo, you spend your days sketching the day to day life of the animals and the keepers. One keeper in particular catches your eye.

Pairing: AU Zookeeper Henry Cavill x Female Reader (no race or size mentioned)

Fandom: Henry Cavill

Warnings: NSFW, 18+, Friends to Lovers, Oral Sex (Female Receiving), Fingering, Safe Sex/Use of Condoms, Realistic Sex/Relationship discussion, Vaginal Sex.

Typo’s are allowed to run wild and free, only the finest organic free range fuck ups for me.

I do not operate a tag list, but if you follow @angryschnauzerwrites​ and hit ‘notifications’, you’ll get an alert every time i post something new. Back catalogue/masterlist can be found there and also on AO3

He’s A Keeper

Working the pencils over the sketchpad you quietly captured the beauty of the animals the zookeepers had nursed back to full health, the Ruffed Lemur currently hanging off the keepers arm as he spoke through the headset to the group of excited school children watching through the glass. 

You’d been hired by the zoo to capture day to day life at the zoo throughout the summer season, drawing the animals and the humans, however there was one particular human you had found yourself drawn to numerous times, and that was the rather tasty zookeeper by the name of Henry. He also had one of the sexiest voices you’d ever had the pleasure to listen to, so as he explained about the Lemur’s your mind wandered, as did your gaze;

“... originally from Madagascar, and have been part of Durrell zoo since 1982 where they have been essential to the breeding program…”

Your mind fell even further into the gutter at the word ‘breeding’, your eyes raking down Henry’s body, taking in how the branded t-shirt clung to his chest before tapering down to a narrow waist where it was neatly tucked into cargo pants that did little to hide how thick his thighs were and a pert arse you could bounce a satsuma off of. Biting the end of the pencil you had all but given up drawing, only realising that the talk was over when the group of school children were being herded onto the next exhibit by their tour guide and teachers.

When the kids had disappeared you finally got back to drawing, watching as Henry finished up feeding the Lemur’s before he met your gaze and smiled at you. Tapping your pencil on the glass he frowned and shook his head, before smiling and pointing to the sign in the corner of the window that said ‘do not tap the glass’, getting closer you tried to mouth your words to him, but was surprised when his eyes went wide in almost shock, before looking down and realising you had pressed your chest to the glass, your low cut cami top helping to accentuate your cleavage. When you looked up again he was gone and you let out a sigh of disappointment, before he appeared through a door to the side of the viewing area;

“Hi” he had a smile that could charm the panties off a nun; “Did you want me?”

“God yes…” Oh fuck, did you say that out loud?; “Sorry, i mean, you’ve dropped the foam bit off your headset...”

He glanced into the enclosure just at the moment one of the larger Lemur’s picked up the small round piece of foam and staring straight at Henry, proceeded to rip it into tiny pieces.

“Furry little fucker…” he cursed under his breath before turning back to you, but before he could say anything a group of other keepers came walking in and soon you were hanging onto the periphery of their conversation where they were discussing going for drinks after work. Moving to pack your stuff up as you presumed they weren’t including you, but a call of your nickname drew your attention;

“Hey Da Vinci, you up for a few beers after work?”

You hesitated to answer, glancing at Henry who had a smile across his face and a hopeful look in his eye;

“We’re all going…”

“Ok, yeah sure, that’d be great” you agreed. 

-

An hour later you were sitting on the wall outside the main entrance waiting for the rest of the keepers to finish their shifts, smiling as you saw them coming out of the doors, and the ensuing 10 minutes that followed as people sorted out who was driving and how many people could fit into just a couple of small cars. As spaces were allocated Henry laughed and shook his head;

“I am NOT riding five up in a Renault Clio, i’m too tall, i’ll have to fold myself in half! Where are we going anyway, i can take my bike and just walk home after”

Waiting as everyone discussed location and finished off seat allocation, they’d finally decided when Henry turned to you;

“Hey, i think the last seats are in the stoner wagon…”

“Oh…” you didn’t have anything against anyone smoking pot, but didn’t fancy being in a car you could barely see out of the windows of.

“But you can ride with me on my bike?”

Looking to where Henry was pointing, you saw a fairly large trails bike, the kind that could go 50mph over rough land and through forests;

“I… I don’t have a helmet…”

“Wait here, let me run into the locker room and grab the spare i keep here”

Everyone else pulled away as Henry ran into the zoo, and you glanced at the bike. You’d never been on a motorbike before, so this would be a first. Stowing everything loose in your backpack, you hooked it over both shoulders just as Henry reemerged from the building, swinging his keys from one finger as he came to stand in front of you;

“Hey, thanks for waiting”

“No worries! So, where are we going again?”

“The pub in Rozel does good food and pulls a great pint” he nodded to his left and you saw a row of motorbikes; “You ever ridden?”

Shaking your head you laughed; “No, never”

He carefully helped you put the helmet on, his nimble fingers helping to secure the strap beneath your chin before putting his own on and climbing onto the bike, pushing it off the kick stand and nodding for you to climb on. You tried to sit back, but he wrapped his arm behind his back and pulled you flush to his body;

“Gotta hold on tight, otherwise you’ll throw the balance off. Lean when i lean and just squeeze a bit harder if you’re scared, the ride won’t take long” he shouted over the thrum of the noisy engine idling.

The ride down to the small village of Rozel had been exhilarating, from the vibration of the motorbike between your legs to the way you were able to wrap your arms around Henry’s waist and cling to him as he hurtled around the country roads at what seemed like warp speed, when in fact it was little more than 30mph. By the time you arrived in the small fishing cove your heart was racing and you actually let out a reluctant moan at the thought of removing your arms from around Henry’s waist.

“C’mon” he grinned as he helped you off the bike; “I’ll buy you a vodka and coke to calm your nerves”

“It wasn’t nerves” you muttered to yourself, smirking as you know he heard you.

-

The group had managed to find a cluster of small tables chairs and benches in the corner of the pub beer garden, and as the sun had set behind the hills to the rear of the pub, the cold Atlantic sea had glowed in pale blues and pinks. You were squashed into a bench with Henry on one side and another enormous hulk of a keeper on the other, and as the temperature had dropped you’d found yourself thankful that Henry had casually rested his arm behind you so you could leech some of his warmth, but it didn’t stop a violent shiver involuntarily running up your spine.

“Cold?” Henry asked quietly, before gently wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you close; “Any better?”

You nodded and let out a very quiet whine as you smiled at him, completely surrounded by his scent and warmth. It made your stomach do a flip and you clenched your thighs together, something that didn’t get past Henry as your leg twitched against his thigh. Before either of you could say anything an enormous bowl of cheesy fries was set down between you, your stomach growling at the aroma’s that wafted around you as it turned out someone had ordered sharing bowls for the whole table.

With the meal mostly devoured as you’d sat side by side on a small wooden bench in the pub garden, laughing as you fed each other and strings of cheese hung from your fingers. As the giggles of a joke faded away you glanced at Henry’s almost finished pint;

“Hey, you aren’t planning on riding that bike home are you?”

“Nah, i’d never drive after a pint, let alone three… my place is just behind The Navigator restaurant…” he paused; “Oh god, where are you staying, do i need to call you a taxi?”

“No no, i’m renting a studio up the hill, on the hairpin bend”

“Oh…” 

It wasn’t a bad ‘oh’ and there was definitely something loaded in the subtext, so when people had started to leave and arrange ride’s back to St Helier and St Johns it felt natural for Henry to stand with his arm around your shoulders as you both waved everyone off.

“Can i walk you home?” he asked, his voice low and full of promise, and you nodded as he slid his hand into yours, leading you along the low coast road that skirted the harbour.

-

You hadn’t gotten far before the evening turned even better, a brief suggestion of a walk along the beach as the tide was out soon had your feet in soft sand as you were pressed to the weathered stone of the sea wall, Henry’s lips on your neck as your fingers dug into his back, his teeth nipping and biting at whatever exposed flesh he could find. You hadn’t even realised he was going lower until he was on his knees in front of you, those sea blue irises staring up at you as he pressed kisses to your legs where your shorts ended. His fingers softly rested on the button and he finally spoke, his voice low and thick with lust;

“May i?”

Nodding fervently you bit your lip as you watched him slowly unbutton you, pulling the garment down your legs until you were able to step out. Never breaking eye contact he lifted your leg and gently rested it on his shoulder, pressing open mouthed kisses up your inner thigh until his face was pressed against your panties and his wide tongue worked against the soaked cotton and lace. His finger crooked beneath them and tugged the scrap of fabric to the side, seeking out your clit before tracing down to your cunt and tenderly teasing the entrance.

“Henry… please…” you whined, desperate for more

“Don’t you worry, i’m gonna make you see stars…”

Pushing his head forwards his lips caught your clit as he slowly slid two fingers into your soaked channel. You let out a long groan at the feel of his lips and fingers finding the right spot immediately, his other hand cupping the back of your thigh before he ran it around your hip and caught your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours as he quickly drove you closer and closer to the edge with that added touch of intimacy. Suddenly he hummed against your clit and the world exploded, making you cum so hard you truly did see stars as a white heat bloomed in your belly and you rode Henry’s fingers until you were spent.

As you rested against the wall behind you he carefully withdrew his fingers, licking them clean as he tugged your shorts up your legs. You couldn’t help but to notice the obscene bulge in the front of his cargo pants, your hand rubbing over the smooth curve of it;

“You keep doing that and i’ll cum in my boxers… “ he panted out, his lips inches from yours; “What’s your room like?”

“Its a little summer cabin studio right at the end of the garden, away from the other holiday rentals and the main house… what about you…”

“Shared flat with two other guys from the zoo. They’re probably drinking in the lounge right now… so, your place?”

-

Unlocking the door you stepped inside and turned on a small lamp, standing aside so Henry could come into your small summer living space.

“Mmm nice” he nodded and looked around; “Wanna give me the tour?”

You snorted out a laugh at the formality, and held your arm out;

“Well this is the kitchen area, right next door we have the smallest shower room in Jersey, and here’s the bed” you didn’t need to take a single step for the ‘tour’, the room seeming even smaller as Henry took a single stride and wrapped his arm around your back, pulling you flush with his chest. Never breaking eye contact he gently trailed a single finger over your cheek, his thumb brushing your plump bottom lip;

“Are you going to be good for me?”

Your legs almost buckled at the deep baritone of his voice, igniting something within you that you hadn’t even known existed, eagerly nodding;

“Yes Sir”

Lowering his lips to yours he kissed you, his tongue pushing past your lips as he took control, walking the pair of you back until your legs hit the bed and you fell back onto the soft unmade covers. Covering your body with his, he quickly stripped you of your clothing, his mouth trailing behind his hands so every inch of you was gifted with a kiss. 

Standing between your legs he pulled his t-shirt over his head and you couldn’t help but to moan at the sight of his body; toned and just the right amount of hair on his chest and a treasure trail on his abdomen that surely led to untold riches. Quickly sitting up your hands joined his on his button to his cargo pants;

“May i?”

Henry released his hands and nodded, watching as you carefully plucked the button before lowering the zipper painfully slowly, his boxers tented obscenely and you couldn’t help but to cup him in your palm, the searing heat of his engorged cock a welcome feel in your hands, the wide mushroom head clearly visible through the stretched fabric. Unceremoniously tugging the rest of his clothing down, you felt yourself getting wetter as his beautiful cock was finally revealed; big, thick and uncut, you had to taste him and quickly ducked your head forwards, swallowing his head between your lips as his hands flew to your hair to steady himself.

Now it was your turn to drive him crazy with your mouth, taking him as deep as you could even though it was barely half of his length, you wrapped both hands around what was left, the thick root of his shaft filling both palms. A few more pumps and he pulled his hips back with a gasp, a trail of spittle hanging from your lips to his bulbous tip;

“If you keep doing that i’m gonna cum far too soon…” he said, his voice shaking; “Lay back and let me treat you right…”

Scooting up the bed you settled against the pillows as you watched Henry shed himself of the rest of his clothing, his boots and socks hooked off, cargo pants and underwear all left in a messy pile at the side of the bed, before he crawled up the mattress like a Panther stalking its prey.

Capturing your lips for another searing kiss, you felt his hot shaft against your belly, burning against your skin and you so desperately wanted to feel him inside you. Pulling away just slightly you were already breathless;

“Just a second…” reaching for the small drawer at side of the bed you pulled out an unopened box of condoms, Henry sitting back on his knees as you ripped the box’s cellophane open with your teeth and pulled out a small foil packet, tearing it open before smoothing the latex over Henry’s shaft. Looking up to his face he wore a rather sheepish smile;

“Sorry, shoulda’ thought of that”

“S’ok, a girl’s gotta keep sharp these days…”

“Right…” he met your gaze; “But you know, if you had gotten pregnant, i would have stood by you”

“Umm thanks? But its for STD’s. I’m on the pill”

“Oh… good thinking…”

A tense pause hung over the pair of you, before you reached up and rested your hand on his chest;

“Shall we continue?”

At your words the tension in the room suddenly dissipated, Henry kissing you as he slid a hand between your bodies so he could position himself at your entrance, groaning as he pushed in slowly breaching your body. Your tight channel hugged him tight, unfamiliar with such a size splitting your walls so he paused, pressing light kisses to your face as your body grew accustomed with his size and the heavy weight of his dick in your pillowy soft embrace. Finally you moaned out his name;

“Henry… please…”

“What do you need?”

“Move… please move. Fuck me, please”

Pushing up on his forearms he started to fluidly move his hips, slow and steady, each thrust was gentle but firm, your body yielding to him as he started to increase the pace, the sound of hot bodies meeting filling the small wooden cabin as the gentle sounds of the sea not far away filled the rest of the night. Soft moans spilled from your lips at the feel of his body playing yours like a delicate instrument, waiting for the chorus and the inevitable crescendo. But he was going to play the entire symphony first, knowing how to get you to sing the high notes as the thrum of your bodies were in tune with each other completely.

With the stretch of his girth and the way the curve of it meant he was able to find your g-spot with every thrust you were fast approaching your orgasm, your body trembling as your lips found a life of their own;

“Henry… please, so good… keep doing that… oh god, i’m gonna cum…”

“That’s it, my good girl, cum on my cock, let me feel you squeezing me so tight… feel so amazing right now… that’s it, you can do it…”

With a cry you came, your legs wrapped around his waist as you pulled him deep whilst your body shook with a fierce orgasm, triggering his own as he pumped a heavy load into the condom.

Finally spent, Henry settled on top of you, his weight a heavy comfort as your sweaty bodies lay skin to skin, the gentle roughness of his chest hair against your naked breasts a tender reminder of his virility. When he started to soften he finally shifted, holding the condom at the base as he pulled out and staggered the few steps to your small bathroom;

“I’ll be back in a second, gotta sort this out…”

The door closed and you shifted on the bed, pulling the duvet back and sliding between the sheets, listening as you heard the tell tale sound of a man urinating and the high pitched, double barrelled squeak of a fart. The flush of the toilet and water running soon after meant you knew the second he would reappear, a flannel in his hand and he stopped dead, his cheeks suddenly bright crimson;

“You heard that didn’t you?”

“It's a small wooden cabin… yes i did”

“Sorry” he approached the bed and with a warm flannel he carefully cleaned between your thighs, pressing a kiss to your lips as he did. When finished he sat on the side of the bed; “Can i stay the night, or did you want me to go?”

“Have you got work tomorrow?”

“Nope. You?”

“Nope. Please, stay”

He quickly threw the flannel into the sink in the bathroom, before with a giggle climbed under the duvet and pulled you into his arms;

“So, how many more condom’s you got?”

-

The morning light broke softly through the trees that surrounded your cabin, your body sore but sated, knowing every bruise and ache came from soft lips, sharp teeth, or skilled fingers, apart from that one ache deep inside that you knew exactly what had caused that delicious soreness, and the owner and cause of all of it still softly slept in your bed. Climbing out you quickly used the bathroom, and as you came back into the room the artist in you couldn’t help but to admire how the dappled morning light cascaded over Henry’s body. Slipping his work t-shirt over your head you pulled your sketchbook from your backpack and settled onto the only chair in the room, quietly working carbon to paper.

Henry woke 45 minutes later, the gentle scratching of your art making him squint at the bright daylight, before laying back on the pillows with his arms spread;

“Still life class?”

Setting your sketchbook down you padded across the room and climbed onto the bed;

“Sorry, i couldn’t help myself… the way the sun was hitting the muscles of your back and shoulders, you were like an anatomy masterpiece”

With a laugh and moving much quicker than you thought he was possible of, he grabbed you by the waist and turned you, his body atop of yours;

“Well that’s enough of that, i would like to become better acquainted with your anatomy… and as we’ve both got the day off i suggest we make the most of it”

Laughing you fell into his embrace, sighing with happiness. Henry really was a keeper, as you were for sure not going to let him go. 

[songbirdsingingthings]

Sweet Escape - Levi Ackerman x Reader

WARNINGS: Angst, Major Injury, Mentions Of Blood

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they belong to Hajime Isayama

Part Two - AOT Masterlist - Main Masterlist

Word Count: 1.5K

It all happened so fast that it caused you to think it wasn’t even real. But, the searing pain in your abdomen told you otherwise. You registered the slightly tickly, slightly itchy feeling of the dry grass as you lay on your back. You could feel the blood pooling all around you, making your shirt and even your pants damp with it. I hope it doesn’t make its way into the ODM gear, you think, turning your head slightly in order to try and peek at the machinery on your hips. Levi will kill me if my blood ends up gumming up the gears.

*Flashback*

“L/N, if you don’t get your cloth moving and your mouth shut, you’ll have stable duty for two months. I hope you know that it will include mucking out each and every stall twice a day, every day.” You cringe a bit at your captain’s harsh tone, quickly picking the little rag up from beside you and making yourself busy by wiping the glass window panes. Captain Levi was always this way, even with his own squad. He wouldn’t stand for loitering or slacking off, which you respected, but he could be an incredible hardass sometimes. You weren’t even making that much noise, murmuring back and forth with your squadmate, but Levi just wouldn’t stand for it. 

“Busted!” Your squadmate whispers, causing you to cover your mouth in order to not voice your giggles. Nonetheless, Captain Levi noticed. Nothing ever really flies past him, does it.

“Lieutenant, is something about that punishment funny to you?” He snarls, causing your head to whip around and face him. The piece of fabric that was previously tied around his head was now lowered, covering the cravat he always wore. Fire burned in his eyes and his expression was dangerous, almost asking you to tell him that it was indeed funny so that he could make your punishment even worse. You stuck to your manners though.

“No sir,” you say quickly.

“Tch,” he scoffs, putting the cloth back over his mouth and turning around so his back is facing you. “Do not leave this room until every speck of dust is cleaned out of here.”

“Yes sir,” you and your squadmate say simultaneously, exchanging worried looks. You waited until the captain left the room and shut the door behind him before you heaved a sigh.

“He hates me.” You state, staring back solemnly at the window that was already clean.

“He doesn’t hate you, he just thinks you’re a bit…” She trails, trying to find a proper word.

“Bad at being a Scout?” You offer. She shakes her head. “Well even if that’s not the word you’re looking for, it’s true.” You huff, now moving onto the armoire in the corner of the room. You let the rag gently trace the intricate carving on it, finding little joy in the indented details that attracted dust.

“Sour! He thinks you’re a bit sour.” She deduces. You look at her with a somewhat hurt expression.

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” You ask, raising an eyebrow.

“Well I don’t think you’re sour, neither does anyone else.” She reasons.

“But your approval isn’t what I need… not that I need approval!” You say, quickly.

“But you want his, don’t you.” Your squadmate states, earning a groan of dismay from you.

“I don’t even know why! I know I was chosen for his squad for a reason and that my statistics show for themselves, but there is just something in me that demands for him to like me as a person.” At your statement, she bursts out laughing. An incredulous look flashes across your face at her reaction. “What?!” You exclaim, feeling a little self-conscious now.

“Oh nothing, you’ll figure it out soon enough.”

It was getting tougher to breathe evenly. You were trying to focus on your breaths; in for six seconds, hold for two, out for seven seconds. Instead, you felt like you were exhaling faster than you were inhaling, providing little air for your lungs. It was like some dust was lodged in there and wasn’t budging. Maybe it actually was dust and all those times that Levi had told you to cover your mouth was for a reason. Your shirt was now fully soaked in your red blood and it started to leak out onto the prickly grass. Please let the others be okay, you think, your eyes still stuck on the azure sky. You could hear the faint yells and screams from scouts in the distance. There would be no chance that anyone would come back to get you, they were too far away. I’m going to die alone with my own thoughts, you conclude, letting tears drip from your eyes as you awaited your lonesome death. The mechanical sound of ODM gear roused you from your thoughts, causing your eyes to dart over towards the commotion. Whoever was using the gear landed quickly and their steps over to you were urgent.

“L/N!” They shouted. Your eyes closed at the voice, finding it quite ironic that the man who hated you the most would be the one to comfort you as you slipped away into the awaiting abyss of darkness. He dropped to his knees beside you and quickly scanned over your body to find the source of your bleeding.

“Levi…” You said, gasping in pain as he removed his cape from his shoulders and pressed it into your abdomen. 

“Hush, brat, we don’t need you exerting any more energy than you have to.” He says, his tone still the harsh one you were used to.

“I’m sorry.” You manage, causing his gaze to lock with your own. He found your eyes to be swimming with yes, tears, but also incredible remorse. His hard exterior fell a bit at this.

“Why on earth are you sorry?” He asks, now taking off his Scout jacket and laying it across you to preserve your body heat.

“I’m sorry that I was such a bad scout… and a bad cleaner… and that I was so sour that it made you hate me.” You finish, giving him a sad smile. Levi shook his head immediately, and slid his body so it was easier for you to look at him.

“I never hated you,” He says softly. Your eyes widen at his words. “You were noisy, and talkative, and sometimes even energetic to a fault… but I never, ever hated you. How could I, when you were such a source of sunshine?” You didn’t make an effort to stop that sob that escaped your mouth.

“Man, I really blew it, huh,” you croak, feeling more lightheaded than before. Levi cocked his head in confusion. “She told me that i’d figure it out soon enough, and now that I have, it’s way too late.” You pause to take a few breaths. “I love you. That’s why I wanted you to see me as capable. But now I’m dying, and your face won’t be the one to greet me after I wake up, even though most of the time you were yelling at me because I overslept.” A strained laugh escaped you as Levi looked at you with despair laced in his eyes. “What I wouldn’t have given to just end this whole thing and leave to live in a flower-filled meadow or somewhere peaceful like that. Wouldn’t that be sweet?” You whisper. Your fingers and toes were growing numb and your body felt cold. You were running out of time. The moment your eyelids began drooping, Levi frantically lifted your head and set it down gently in his lap.

“No, no, no, you keep your eyes open Lieutenant.” He was practically begging you at this point. “I shot a signal flare so the medics will be here soon, just hold on.”

You gave him a grin, but your once pearly whites were now stained with red. Your hand reached up to cup his cheek, ignoring the screaming pain in your side. You saw the blood that your hand was smudging on his cheek, but he made no effort to cringe from it or try and wipe it off.

“You tell them that I wasn’t a crybaby when this whole thing went down, okay? I want everyone to remember me as someone who stood strong in their last moments.” Levi was shaking his head as he reached his own hand up to yours so that he could hold it.

“I’m not gonna do that, because you’re gonna be okay. You do not get to leave me, you understand?” You felt your hand begin to grow wet with his tears.

“Please don’t be sad, Levi.” You ask of him, your eyes pleading. “Can I get a smile? I’ve never seen one on you once, and I think it would look just wonderful on you.” To your loopy surprise, he obliges, sprouting a wobbly, but visible, smile. You were right. He looked wonderful. In the distance, but coming closer to you, you could hear the sounds of horses pulling a wagon behind them.

“See, the medics are right here. Just hold on a little longer!” Levi exclaims, worry still prevalent in his demeanor. You felt people gather around you, but you were too tired to open your eyes. The last thing you felt, before your mind slipped into unconsciousness, was the feeling of Levi’s lips on your forehead. What a sweet escape.

A/N: This could potentially have a part two? Idk, I’m pretty much fine leaving it here like this, but if anyone wants a part two lemme know!

[lovelybarnes]

bunny- p. parker

pairings: peter parker x reader, mom!natasha romanoff x reader, dad!tony stark x peter parker warnings: i didn’t know how to end this, so bad ending and cursing about: the chronicles of peter parker and y/n romanoff (this is a birthday present for my dearest emma) a/n: so i wanted to do lions. but i figured, why and how would y/n get a lion? so i ditched that idea and i hope that’s okay. also, i have no idea how to take care of bunnies or if you can even foster them? but it’s fine please go along with it

@emmastarz

the little red wagon you’re dragging squeaks, and you gently shush the kennel on top of it, tugging on the blanket that threatens to fall off and reveal what you’re keeping hidden. the soft noises don’t stop, though you can’t blame them with the surprisingly uneven floors of stark industries.

seriously, what’s up with that? isn’t stark a genius billionaire? you think to let him know when you see him next, distracting yourself from the fact that you’re doing something you’re definitely not supposed to. your mother will have your head if she finds out, so you swear to yourself that no one will find out.

you realize your oath isn’t particularly easy to keep, as keeping anything from the avengers is difficult. keeping things from the black widow herself, however, is nearly impossible. the key word is nearly, because her magnificent daughter (aka you) is the exception, even more cunning than her. her who is currently waiting outside your room, making going in there to hide like you planned out of the question.

so, you hide, trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go now that your only feasible plan has been left useless. you’re behind an absurdly large plant, looking at the rooms around you and attempting to remember which one belongs to someone who won’t ask questions.

“what are you doing?” you hear suddenly, flinching and turning with a jump, relieved to only find your boyfriend in front of you, holding a glass of water with a concerned look on his face. “shh!” you demand, grabbing his arm and pulling him closer. “don’t make a noise,” you whisper, his eyes growing wide, “are we under attack? my suit is in my room-”

“your room!” you repeat in a relieved whisper, remembering that peter’s room is literally three feet in front of you, inviting and away from the wrath your mother will surely rain upon you. “come on, we have to get to your room, carry this,” you motion to the wagon, “don’t make a sound.”

“why do i have to-” “super strength,” you remind, “for one, and two- if you don’t, my mother will kill me. then you, for being in the same vicinity as me.” peter pauses, a grimace going over his face, surely remembering how terrified he is of your mother, and picks up what you asked without another word, following you into his room as silently as spiderman and a trained spy can.

you lock the door once you’re inside, calling out to friday to soundproof the room and not let anyone in. “what are you doing? what is this? it moved,” peter complains in disgust, putting down the wagon. you roll your eyes, carefully putting the crate down next to it. “it’s nothing. i just need to get to my room so i can keep them there and no one will ever know.”

peter’s eyes bulge out of his head, “them? who is them?” he questions frantically, walking over to the crate, ready to pull the blanket off before you stop him. “the less you know, the better,” you say ominously, patting his wrist in your hand. “what?” he asks, voice squeaky. he backs away and you turn your back on him, heading to his desk to charge your phone, “just, it’s better if you don’t know, because-”

“are these rabbits?” he gasps loudly, making you turn around quickly to see him holding the blanket. you slap lightly at his arm, not that it does much to his enhanced self, “peter!” you whine, “i told you not to look!”

“they’re rabbits! why are you sneaking rabbits around the compound?- jeez, how many of them are in there…” peter trails off, trying to count the tiny wiggly things with his eyes, and failing each time they move. you sigh when he looks back at you with wide, questioning eyes. “i- it’s just-”

the exact reasoning seemed a lot more logical at the animal center where you picked them up half an hour ago, but as it rests on your tongue now, it’s difficult to make something rational out of it. “the animal shelter was at capacity- i- there was really no other option, aren’t avengers supposed to help or something?” you answer, tone questioning by the end of your sentence.

“alright, that’s… not a bad excuse, why are you hiding?” peter points out, looking back at the small kennel filled with sleeping bunnies. “well, it’s not really the first time i’ve done this. you know the dogs we have? candy and star?”

peter nods, “well, i kind of did this with them. it started out with fostering but then we just fell in love and we ended up adopting them, then it happened again with the ducks, and again with a cat, and at one point it became kind of implied that i wasn’t to bring home any more stray animals because we’re kind of stretching it already.”

you panic at the look on peter’s face, and afraid he’ll change his mind about the words he spoke previously, you talk frantically again, “but their mom abandoned them and they needed help, and they’re so cute, look at them,” you urge, opening the cage to pull one out and showing it to peter. his face melts adorably, a small coo escaping his lips against his will. “it’s also just for one or two weeks. a few of them are already promised to go to some families, but they’re still too little, so they just need a place to stay for now.”

“and can you say no to this face?” you ask sarcastically, extending the bunny in your arms closer to peter’s face, then gesturing to the cage with your eyes, “to any of them?”

peter groans, his head slumping forward, “fine,” he gives in, and you cheer a little. “but i take care of them with you,” he requests. you nod, “yes! absolutely!” you grin, going to put the baby back in its kennel before peter stops you, “which means i also get to hold them.”

you laugh, gently placing the bunny in peter’s arms, adoring eyes watching his lips mutter how cute they are.

-

“we’re rabbit parents for two weeks,” he says an hour later, after your mom has moved from your door due to some expert distracting (a mission that came in before you had time to launch your genius plan: peter throwing himself down the stairs “accidentally”). you’ve set up the rabbit living space in your room, having read up enough on them to know what you need. the random unused closet tony insisted on giving you has come in handy, and with a lot of help from the manual he gave you on her, you figured out how to get friday to change the temperature to the necessary one for the babies. you’ve also sworn friday to secrecy, making sure not even tony himself can get the information out of her.

“we are rabbit parents for two weeks,” you agree, playing with a couple of them and watching peter, curls curlier and an easy look on his face. he looks so adorable, you can’t help the kiss you press against his lips. a red blush covers his neck as he kisses you back, giddy smile quirking the edge of his lips up.

-

you’re surprised when, by the next week, no one has found out about yours and peter’s little secret, even more so that no one has been told by peter’s big mouth. he’s coming by a lot more now, his previous rare sleepovers increasing largely. tony and natasha are getting suspicious, and as they watch you and your boyfriend sneak into your room, supposedly inconspicuously, they turn to each other. “is y/n pregnant or something? why has she been acting so weird?” tony asks.

natasha looks at him, “she’s always with your kid whispering and being alone in their rooms. whenever i tell your stupid robot to let me in, she won’t tell me anything. i thought it was state of the art?”

tony huffs in offense, “friday the ai,” he clarifies, earning an intense glare from natasha, “is state of the art, i don’t know what your daughter did to her, but she won’t tell me anything either.” natasha rolls her eyes, small swell of pride fluttering in her chest at your managing to keep stark out of his own technology before remembering what she’s angry at you for.“we need to go in there,” natasha states with finality, walking to your door. “i know, but i don’t want to risk seeing anything potentially scarring,” tony sasses.

the woman ignores him, shoving open your door to find both you and peter nowhere to be seen. she looks around, trying to figure out where you are and what the hell you’re doing.

meanwhile, you and peter are busy babbling at the bunnies, a lot bigger now, to notice the intruders in your room, not even seeing the notification friday sends to your phone. you’ve let your guard down after a week of been inconspicuous, which is stupid and very un-spy like of you. so you suppose you only have yourself to blame when the door to the closet bursts open to “what the hell are you two doing?” and “is it safe to open my eyes?”